Useful tips and products

ImMaggieMae

Shampoo caps and shaving cream - Could anyone who’s used these recommend a brand? Especially the shampoo caps. There are a lot of negative and positive reviews on Amazon.

M1

I'll add another: our nursing director gave us a towel warmer (this one from Brookstone, but there are lots of others on Amazon). I put both her bath towel and robe in it and she loved stepping into those toasty things after a shower.

LadyTexan

Treo disposable razors by Gilette are especially designed to shave another person. They are pricey (in my opinion) by can facilitate a nice clean shave.

gampiano

Hi Maggie Mae,

I used Nurture brand shampoo caps. My aide gave me a tip, and told me to leave the cap on DH while we took care of some other groomng and then massage his scalp after about 15 minutes. I have no complaints about these, and his hair looked great and was always nice and clean.

Hope this helps.

Maureen

Abby1567

This may be a dumb question but does every Alzheimer’s patient end up with incontinence? Is there anybody out there that didn’t have to deal with it?

Babz0226

I would be so interested to know my DH starting stage 7 still knows when to go to the bathroom but I have to help with bm wipes for almost a year. I think this is called cognitive reserve yes/no ???

His cognitive ability is like a 2 year old this so strange that he is able to do this. I would love to know if anyone else is like this he is 77 yrs ,old first memory test was 2017 with MC .

LadyTexan

@so scared

I dealt with incontinence on my Journey with DH. From what I've read and heard, NOT every Alzheimer's patient ends up with incontinence. The sobering truth is some patients expire first.

Babz0226

Thank-you for this response.

Kari_329040

Any tips for removing urine smell from bathroom? More specifically what bins are best for soiled pads and underwear. I am caregiving for my grandmother, and she is very environmentally conscious. She will not allow for garbage service on her 20-acre property. She will not allow me to remove the bag of soiled pads and underwear until the bags are full (I sneak when really needed). We currently have a 33-gallon garbage can that we are filling outside and have to take to the dump when full. So, in the bathroom we have 2 bins one for underwear (depends) and one for pads. When a bag gets full, I can take it out. I come to her house every Tuesday and I have been able to hurriedly take both out without her noticing or at least making any comments about it. She will not let me come out more often to assist her because she doesn't want to pay for me to do so. Any tips are welcome please

Lucy C

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/221941#Comment_221941

This probably needs a thread of its own. Unfortunately, being there only once a week, you can't control how those pads/etc. are managed. If she is otherwise keeping things reasonably sanitary, and isn't likely to make a fuss over a minor adjustment, you can buy two products from farm supply stores: Sweet PDZ Stall Refresher, and Barn Dri, which is a lime product and comes in 50 lb. bags. Either one of them is environmentally conscious enough for anybody, and you can start by adding a layer of either one (Barn-Dri is much cheaper) to the bottom of the bins, and then in the bottom of the bags themselves. Every time you come, throw in a generous layer of product into both bags. It will make them heavier, and it probably won't totally get rid of the odor, but from my experience, I suspect it will make some difference, as both products are designed to absorb large amounts of urine and ammonia. You could also add baking soda to the bins, but I'd probably try the Barn-Dri first. PDZ is the nicer product, but it is somewhat pricey, relatively speaking.