The ever popular incontinence care

markus8174

Has anyone had luck using the North Coast incontinence products? Some of their products look great-on their webpage. I was hoping for a less biased opinion. My beloved is in residential memory care and the generic products they use there may as well be made from tissue paper. I do all her laundry and bedding and I don't think she has passed stool in a month that it didn't "blow-out" all over her clothes, shoes, comforters, sheets.... I think she could still be stool continent, but that's another story. I was just hoping to find a product, with tab closures, that would help contain her stool, and North Coast is a brand I haven't tried. It's getting impossible to manage.

White Crane

Hi Markus, I haven’t had the need to use incontinence products for my husband but Ed used to post about a company called parentgiving.com when his wife needed them. You might look at their website. If I remember correctly, Ed said he used to order the incontinence products that were made in Italy. I hope this helps.

Brenda

Ed1937

Brenda (and Markus), that's right. But the ones we used were pull ups, and I'm not sure that's what Markus is looking for. But parentgiving.com has a lot of different brands of pull ups and diaper type. They also have a phone number on the site so you can call to ask which product they would recommend when you give them the information they need. My wife has since passed on, but I give parentgiving.com a solid 10. They are fast, and they stand behind their products. Just call before ordering.

gampiano

Hi Markus,

I have and am using a pullup from North shore. I like the product , but im also usong a super absorbent pullup made by Parentgiving, and its is the best one i've found. They will send you samples of their products so you can try, as will Northshore. My husband has skinny legs and the Parentgiving product is a snug fit. Make sure you look at the measurements on the size chart. also, you can chat and describe your specific needs so you get the right fit.

Maureen

markus8174

Thanks for the input folks! I'll keep checking back to see if anyone has used the tab closure North Coast. As I said, the long term care facility where my DW resides will only use tab closure garments-easier access, easier application when I resident may not be in a cooperative mood. I'll look into parentgiving as well. My DW has the ever enviable "thigh gap" with bird legs, a flat butt resembling a 10 year old boy, but broad hips, and a grandmother's tummy- somewhat pendulous since she has lost 40-50 pounds. Nothing may fit, but North Coast claims to have higher leak-guards around the leg openings and a better waist band to contain leaks. The ones most industrial in their line have a plastic outer layer. They may not like the plastic outer layer at the nursing home because of poor skin breathability- whatever that means when a resident is packing a couple cups of liquid poop with a generous urine gravy. Not a lot of skin breathing going on through that mess. They are just not as proficient at getting a resident cleaned up promptly as I'd like, and insist on loose stools so the residents can soil themselves without too much drama and the staff can do a clean up on the staff's schedule. Every two hours from what they've said. Heaven help the resident that poops just after a change. They are going to sit in it for 1 hour 55minutes unless we are all called to glory before then.

ImMaggieMae

Ed, which of the pull-ups did you use with success? My DH is mostly only urine incontinent and we’ve tried several different brands of pull-ups. But I have to change them at least 8 or 9 times per day to make sure he’s dry because he has a problem with rashes no matter what type of ointment I use. He is at home and only in bed at night. I have been using a pull-up plus heavy duty pad inside of it. But if he has a bowel accident, that doesn’t work very well.

Ed1937

@ImMaggieMae I used the Dry Direct brand, made in Italy. If you want to try those, I'd suggest you call to make sure that's what they send because the ones made in the states aren't quite the quality as those from Italy. You have to read the fine print because the ones made in the states share the same name, for some reason. Here's the number. 1-888-746-2107

But that doesn't guarantee it will be best for you. I'd suggest trying the samples to see what is best for your situation. They can also make suggestions for you. Just ask.

MN Chickadee

We used North Shore Care products for overnights. Didn't need to pay the higher prices during the day when we were changing mom more often we just used generic, but we used North Shore Care ones for nights and they held well. If you look at the specifications tab for each product it tells how many ounces it holds. Their "supreme" ones hold 38 ounces and It think a standard Depends only holds like 15 oz. We still had some BM messes to deal with depending on various circumstances.

Once we moved her to MC we stopped buying the expensive ones because they were changing her often and she didn't seem to need to heavy duty ones. It sounds like perhaps the staff need to be both changing your LO more and also taking her to the bathroom more often to try to have a BM in the toilet. That said, when my mother was very mobile it was very hard for the staff to keep up with her and she could make a mess of feces in her room in an instant. If your LO is ambulatory that's a hard phase to deal with incontinence.

markus8174

MN Chickadee: I'm not sure what solution will work best, but I can't imagine leaving things as they are now. I know at some point soon my DW will lose all awareness that she is about to or has just pooped. She is currently using a wheelchair most of the time- I'm not sure why, but the staff complain they are just too busy to assist her to the toilet- she will stand without help or refuse to stand when they tell her to, so they feel tied to the bathroom until my DW decides the business at hand is done. We can't have that- a resident deciding on when she is done on the toilet! I don't really have an answer. I just know she gets frantic every day because she needs help to use the toilet(imagine returning from a trip to Cancun, where you drank the tap water too often, and the plane's bathroom is out of order), and the staff disappears every day to ensure they only have to change her clothes and incontinence protection, not toilet her. I just keep getting that condescending head shake and the "you just don't understand her condition" lecture whenever I make an issue of it. It's making me crazy.

Atlantajan

I feel like I have tried everything. Lots of people here recommend Parentgiving, but I ordered several packs of pullups from them; They didn't work so I wanted to return the unused packs. It was going to cost me $98! Carewell is much better. They pay for return shipping, and the Abri-Flex pullups are the only ones I have found that stay dry ALL NIGHT. I double them and use plastic pants and regular pants (4 layers but it works!)

There are three levels -- 1, 2 and 3. I use 3. Highly recommend!

ImMaggieMae

I ordered small packs of the Go Supreme pull on underwear and the MegaMax tab style underwear from North Shore, just to try them. They took about a week to get here using the FedEx ground option. And they are expensive. The Go Supreme were nice in that they are taller in the back and the coverage is a little better than your typical pull on underwear. The leg openings were also more snug which was helpful against leaking. They advertise lasting up to 8 hours. “Up to” are the key words here. During the day they lasted about 4 hours. At night I had to add a pad to keep them from leaking, but my husband sleeps for about 9 hours, so that wasn’t unexpected.

We have 2 pairs of the MegaMax tab style that we haven’t tried. They are a plastic type material on the outer layer and probably wouldn’t leak but there is no way they could be breathable and I don’t think they are advertised to be. I would be very concerned about UTI’s using something like this overnight.