My Elder Mother Spit out her food

My mom who is 90 has COPD. At this point we can get her to eat without spitting out her food. She says she does not know why she is doing it. Her doctor says it is weakness. She takes 2 neb inhalor meds, as well as a blood presure med, a heart med, cough surup and dm cough surup. We just do not understand what is causing this other than that we told it is a natural process of someone failing and this is typical behavior. I feel there is some other reason. She has her witts and her breathing is much better. If it were not for her eating she would be doing pretty good health wise. Her vitals are fine overall and she can grip stongly so being weak is a lame reason. Any advise would be greatly appreciated from the viewers here on this forum. Thanks-

[asorofman]

Dont know why she spits it out but my mother is 89 come this July and in what they call the end stages of COPD and she has great difficulty swallowing her food. She states she can not swallow and sometimes ends up spitting out the food.  They say there is nothing wrong with her throat and cant give us a reason for this.  Maybe your mother is spittinout her food because she cant swallow and is afraid she will choke.  Try giving her foods that are easy to swallow.  Chewing will tire them out and if they chew with their mouth closed, they can not breath and instinct (MSP?) will have them emptying their mouth so they can get their breath

[Tom439]

Interesting thoughts. Sounds like this may be one of those final stages of COPD. ---not being able to eat/swallow. Your thoughts on getting tired makes sense and wanting to breath......although my mom will eat at times somethings in very small amounts. It makes me wonder if they are scared that they will choke. I also was told not to use a straw however my mom drinks much better with one. She does chomp on the straw many times as if she does not know how to use it. The whole expereince is very frustrating. I feel so helpless in trying to help her. Of course you get very little advise or answeres from the doc. If you care to stay in touch with me......you can email me at ***@****. I would love to keep in touch with you to compare notes as days go by. I am very close to my mom. I hate to see her go through this. At 89 or 90 which is my moms age........she is still our mom and I want to help her. Age is only a number, but I get tired of hearig she is 90. Big deal. They still are alive ,thinking, and with it. They deserse help even if they are 90. Tom

[asorofman]

My mother also does much better with a straw. Up until a couple of weeks ago she had more than just her witts about her. Now... most days she is talking to people who arent there, and sleeps more than not.  On the 22nd nobody thought she would live more than a couple of hours... The morning of the 23rd she came trucking down the hall with her walker, had got up, changed her clothes, brushed her teeth, combed her hair, and wanted to know if there was any coffee ready.  I am sorry but  I actually had to laugh when u mentioned getting tired of hearing she was 90 because last year when ma had taken a turn to the worst, she would ask the doctors over and over why she couldnt do this or that.  They would tell her "after all you are 88"  The last time one of the doctors told her that she read him the riot act. Said she was tired of hearing it and they had better not use that as an excuse again. The doctors actually put a note in her chart telling the nurses and techs not to make that statement to her.   Ur email addie didnt come thru but mine is my name asorofman and I use cox.net so maybe you can email me.