Dementia Bathing Tips: 8 tips to make bathing easier
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- čas přidán 5. 07. 2024
- Welcome to the place where I share dementia tips, strategies, and information for family members caring for a loved one with any type of dementia (such as Alzheimer's disease, Lewy Body dementia, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, etc.) Every Sunday, I share a video to help you in your dementia caregiving journey.
In today’s video, I’m giving you a behind the scenes peek into one of my teachings of the Make Caregiving Easier challenge. I hope you’ll watch and more than that, I hope you’ll apply what you learn to your own personal situation.
If you want to join the next Make Caregiving Easier challenge, be sure to sign up on the wait list. Link below.
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In case you haven’t met me, my name is Natali Edmonds and I am a board certified geropsychologist. That means that I am a clinical psychologist who specializes in working with older adults. I hope that this work helps you in some way on your caregiving journey.
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I was told baby care products are good to use. Shampoos are no tear in case it gets in the eyes. Soaps rinse off more easily and are less irritating to their delicate skin. Also I like to think the smell of baby products puts our love ones in a better place mentally. It may remind them of happier times. (Just my thoughts)
Great suggestion!
We were really having a tough time with my aunt who is 82! The only thing that persuaded her was a $20 bill. 😩
Tip 3 is so precious and underrated. I also make sure that I stand next to my father when he is in the bathtub instead of facing him. This way he might feel more privacy. I understand this is difficult for him 💔
These are all great ideas. I am so happy to have your channel as well as everyone's comments and ideas to help me get through this difficult time with my mother who suffers from Alzheimer's disease.
We have special reminder cards that come out on shower day with pretty pictures of flowers to remind LO that today is get cleaned up day. I remind her that I am there mainly to keep her SAFE. Fortunately she can still do most of the personal care washing herself butI talk to her a lot just so she knows I’m there. I am working now on getting her used to having me nearby or actually in the bathroom while she showers because I know she will need more help soon. Suction hand grips and an over the tub edge support have helped feel safer. We always emphasize that she asked us to keep her safe and healthy with all the care-giving steps we take now. That seems to reassure her and takes the focus off what she can no longer do for herself and reminds her that what we do is for HER benefit. She responds well to this approach though I am aware that it may not work in the future as her cognitive abilities will eventually decline. I’m very grateful for all your tips and ideas. I feel a lot of support from your video, thank you! ❤️
Use the excuse of cleaning her bathroom while she is taking her bath. That way she will not feel like you are in there just watching her. You can also carry on a conversation with her at the same time.
I got in the shower with mum and showered with her. I made it fun and we would laugh a lot. I would use nice smelling liquid soap and put it on a face cloth and say “wash your arm pits”, and “ now wash your bum bum” etc. I would shampoo her hair nice and quickly before she’d make a fuss!! It worked well!
Thank you for putting out so many informative and understandable videos about dementia.
We noticed that my mother was having significant symptoms so she had an appointment to get checked out. In the meantime, I hunted for information to prepare. As it turns out, we now know that it's actually a tumour causing the trouble (potentially operable, so that's a small win), so all my research about dementia isn't wholly relevant even if some of the current symptoms are the same. Even so, I very much appreciate the videos you have made and I feel much better equipped to deal with memory issues and people with dementia. Thank you.
These are all good tips.
Thank you immensely for this post. A shower chair and hand grip to step into the tub helped me. Also hand held shower and a rubber mat.
These are such good tips xx my loved one enjoys relaxing in a warm bath luckily but another loved one did not but outside help did work in that case
Great tips. Thanks so much 👌🌹
Our position is still very much in the beginning stage. At the moment I leave everything as it’s been. He makes me tea and brings me some rusks with it. I don’t want to changed our routine if it’s not necessary now. That’s why I passed so often and really felt bad about it. Hope you understand. Keep well🍃🕊
Joo, get some Johnson&Johnson baby bath with "almond oil" flavour. My personal favourite!
I am dreading the time when bathing and toileting becomes necessary for my LO because I and a bit fussy with myself which may impact on how I behave! So thank you for all the tips and I do follow all the blogs. We are in our 70's btw.
I haven't had any luck, the best idea I have is to load a bucket with water and soap..put it on the top of the doorway, when they open the door it pours on them! now u just need a towel!
😂💦🛀
I have to trick my 87 year old mother to shower. She has mobility problems so I always assist her when going to the toilet. I get her to sit on the toilet seat and when she is finished I start to undress her and tell her she is having a shower. She screams the place down telling me I am trying to kill her and freeze her and that she had a shower yesterday (in fact its been weeks) but once she is under the water she does complain but knows she has to deal with it. I have a shower chair for her and a hand rail for safety but it is difficult because when she needs to stand up I am afraid she will fall and hurt herself
My best success came when I made the bathroom into a really comfy and pleasing environment. I purchased coordinating appendages such as color matching towels, bathmats and a shower curtain in her favorite colors, warmed the room up and got a big fluffy pink terrycloth bathrobe with her initial on it. She needed help with determining which container of shampoo, conditioner, body wash, etc, so I always accompanied her into the shower and helped her with what she needed. I never pushed her or suggested she needed the shower, I just suggested it was the day we needed to get clean.
My LO has not showered since September. It's now almost Thanksgiving. I have tried all of the suggestions. We talk about it and I suggest it's time for a shower. I am going to try the shower chair or some type of walker thing that can go in the shower and hope he will allow me to help him. It is very, very hard to deal with this and I'm wondering when I should maybe get outside help just for this process???
I have the same issue with my dad as well. He was in short term care for a month from August until mid-September and he was great there with the bathing but since he was discharged in mid-September he has not bathed since. I tried everything and anything for him to bathe and it just does not work. I even tried the old, "you have a doctors appointment today" and then hope he showers and he refuses. The worst part is that we had to get him on risperidone and while it took a few weeks to really start working, he's been very good and will listen but bathing is the one thing he just refuses.
We got help and it worked better for us xxx good luck
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Ugh we had 4 caregivers try to get LO in shower last 2 weeks to no avail. Tried all the tricks. At wits end. Can't even tell you last time they washed hair. For someone who used to take pride in their appearance I find it more perturbing
A resident told me she has abdominal pain radiating to the her back, I mentioned to staff, I was told that resident gets uti because she refuses cleaning care...I want to help resident to agree to let nursing home staff to do care. Any suggestion as I can't personally do the care, but resident does seem to trust me.
A shower chair and handheld shower made all the difference
I give my mom her prescribed Ativan, give it an hour, get her in the bathroom, start the shower, and tell her she will take a shower. Granted there have been times when it took 1-5 hours, lots of times devolving into her making baited statements of, "I must have been a sh!tty mother to have to be treated this way", over a shower!! Other times it escalates into, "I'm going to kill myself", again over a shower. One time it was *14 MONTHS* that she hadn't showered!! But in the end she will take a shower, regardless of how long it takes me to get her in there. If I say it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen
Ya, this might b e good for a shy quiet person, but my Mom is a strong willed person and isnt into the playtime shower method.
My mom always washed her hair in the kitchen sink independently of taking a bath. As her dementia progresses, we've had an awful time getting her to wash her hair. She has mobility issues in addition to her dementia which makes leaning over the sink difficult. We tried a waterless shower cap purchased at our pharmacy that shampoos hair without having to wet or rinse. It was a real struggle getting her to use it, but once we did she enjoyed how her hair smelled and felt. Trouble is she has no recollection whatsoever of either the struggle or the positive result, and future attempts to get her to use it have been futile. We recently bought a rinseless shampoo that is applied to the hair and worked through with a towel. She may accept that easier than a cap on her head. Do you have any other suggestions specifically for getting them to wash their hair?
Same exact problem. Hope someone has ideas.
My experience has been thataking sure the cap is warmed up helps....warm is always better
Also, tell her you're going to give her a head massage and start by just rubbing her head very gently just with your hands and then introduce the cap warked up with "massage gel" in it...just a thought
Taking a appointment whit the hairdresser at the hospital...She use to it🤷
What about for bathing in bed?
I have not had any success at all as of yet. She takes maybe 20 percent of the baths she needs to. I'm mostly concerned about her possibly getting an infection or something. It is at the stage where she streaks though she house on occasion but does not want ANY assistance.not really sure what to do about private areas or toenails to keep her safe
This was a huge issue for my mom near the end. We ended up sponge bathing her in bed.
Mom ignores all my offers and just won’t get up 😢
I tell my wife that it's time to show and help her get ready for her shower but she showers herself and when she is out I have the hair dryer ready for her and choose her pajamas and she does not like then tell her to wear what's she likes to wear, it works like
If they are not washing their genitals (woman)...how do you address that? I am giving my mil with dementia a shower....she gets in shower...and doesnt wash...even after telling her to. Please help.....
HI Tiny, This is Trisha. Dr. Natali's social media manager. I'm sorry to hear about your situation;. Here is a CZcams video she made that I hope can help you with your situation. 💖 czcams.com/video/Lfm9R5c9Tho/video.html