No I don't think you should force drink, I don't think you should force anything down. One day you know my mother, I think it's a question of finding out what the person understands, because my mother could understand a drink in a cup, at one time it was a baby cup because she couldn't, she was lying down so we couldn't get it, but she understood that's what it was and she wanted it. And now she can understand, she went through a stage where she could understand what a cup of tea was.

So I then said to the home 'Could you put her soup in the mug because she can understand the mug, she can't understand the bowl and the spoon?' So they did and then they forgot the next time so I used to try and get there for a meal a day, the district nurse wasn't there so I used to try and get there for supper. So I put it into the cup and then I thought maybe she can understand what bread was. And the nurse, the district nurse, being the professional that she is said that if your mother goes to a table with others and sees other people eating she'll, she may try and copy which in fact in time to come she did.

And at one time I was feeding her, I said 'Oh, you're doing rather well,' with scrambled egg and she was smiling away, this is lovely, and all of a sudden she started taking it all out because she had forgotten that it was food so she was taking it all out.  And I thought gosh if somebody started putting a load of stuff in my mouth and it wasn't food I'd want to take it out, so I let her take it out. 

And, so I think, oh I don't know, I'm not a professional I don't know but I would say that if they stop eating try and offer them things that they understand. My mother loved ice cream and she used to like the feel of the cold in her mouth and of course the ice cream would melt and she'd swallow it.

So if that's good for her, why not let her eat ice cream at every meal. And in at one stage that's what she was doing. And, so I think it's much better to, by trial and error find out the things that the sufferer is happy to take. So I'd say that, I'd say the food and the drink and the things they can take in by their mouth that they're happy to take, I don't think you should use force, no I don't, at all.