I have read that this is a symptom that comes in the later stages of Alzheimer's. For my mom, it isn't that she can't swallow. It seems, rather, that she simply forgets that she has food in her mouth that needs to be swallowed. She will stop chewing, pocket the food in her cheek and hold it there; however, when I remind her that she has food in her mouth, she starts chewing again, and generally, she will swallow. The most effective way to remind her is not with words but by putting another spoon full to her mouth. She doesn't take the new food because she realizes there is something in her mouth. Only a few times has she spit the food back out.
The first time I realized that she was pocketing food in her cheek, I worried. Now, it is just another one of the odd symptoms of the messed up circuitry in her brain.
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