Bathing(9)

Katefrehe

We would love any advice on bathing tips, our mom was diagnosed this past May, she is 87 and has always been so meticulous about herself etc.  If we suggest shower etc. she sometimes becomes angry and will not want to.

grammyteacher

Earlier on, instead of asking about a shower, I would simply get everything ready...including heating up the bathroom and the dressing space. Then I would just say, your shower is ready. I would hover close by and be ready to assist. As she time went on, she needed more and morehelp.

As getting in the shower became more difficult, I had her sit on the bedside commode with the bucket removed. I could give her a quick sponge bath. 

YYou might have to be creative

RanchersWife

Don’t let anger about bathing get in the way of keeping her clean and healthy. I let things go that don’t matter, but bathing, depends changes, and water consumption are health issues and are non negotiable with me. Taking over is hard but has to be done. Take it one step at a time. My LO pushed back really hard against my husband, her son, wiping her. She managed a sentence, “No! You’re my son.” He replied, “That’s why I’m doing this.”

live in daughter

Hi, my Mom was very hesitant to take showers. She was always afraid of falling. We put up handle bars in the shower, had a shower chair and my sister was in the shower with my Mom. We changed the shower head to a hand held shower so the water flow could be more controlled. Two of us would help my Mom out of the shower. These things helped a little but showers were always stressful.

As my Mom's mobility got less and less we changed to bed baths. We would begin the bath upon my Mom waking in the morning. There would be two of us to move quickly. We would have the basin of water on a bedside table. One would wash and one would dry. We moved from head to toe and always used a lotion for her skin and she would smell good a day. We would use Gold Bond under skin folds to prevent skin rashes. She appreciated our efforts. 

Hope this helps.

ninalu

This is a great question. Please do a search because there is a lot of great information about how to make showers / baths go well, or at least better  

In my mom's case, 3 key things I recall:
1. Fatigue made showering an exhausting activity for her, so we had to do it when she had the most energy and we had to make sure that treats followed immediately. Something she really liked. 

2. Getting cold was a powerful disincentive. As her Alz progressed, her sensitivity to cold has too. We would make the bathroom nice and warm, have warm, soft towels and other yummy things to make the experience feel more special and comforting.

3. My mom was afraid of the showering experience because she was forgetting how to do certain things - like which bottle was the shampoo and which was conditioner, and how to shampoo, and where the sponge was. When I assisted her and praised her, it seemed to help a lot. In some cases, she'd do all the stuff herself and I'd just sit there and every so often say something nice to her about how great she was doing. It seemed to matter a lot. Loss of confidence maybe?