The Christmas season is already here with us. The bells are jingling and everyone is looking up at you with expectation as they await for you to dole them with all forms of presents for the Christmas period. And you do not want to disappoint them, do you? Well, it has been a tough year and all the challenges that 2020 has set us into. But hey, Christ needs to be born in our hearts and that is the sole reason why we need to rejoice and be jolly about what is happening.
In buying gifts for your loved ones, do not forget to get something for the elderly. Yes, they might be battling with dementia, Parkinson’s, are old and senile but hey, kindly do not forget them. Not one moment.
So, lets get into looking at gifts that you need to get for your elderly patients whether they are at home or in a caregiving center
- Bidet toilet seats
In their sunset years, some elderly people might be having trouble wiping their bums with toilet paper. This could be caused by dementia, obesity, stiffness of muscles or even a hip replacement surgery. You do not want them struggling that much trying to wipe clean their butts, do you?
Well, you can change this narrative by getting them a bidet toilet seat that is going to suit them awesomely.
One good thing about the American bidet seats is that you can always alter the temperature of the toilet seat depending on how warm you want it to be. At the same time, you can adjust the intensity of the water jet from the nozzle as well as either choose to have a back or feminine front wash.
Once you are done washing your bum, you do not have to reach for a toilet paper or family cloth to dry yourself. No, you just need to use the warm air dryer that will dry your bum with a stream of hot air.
All these actions can be done with the control of a remote or LCD screen control panel.
- Toilet wiping aids
Other than a bidet toilet seat, senior people could also employ wiping aids such as the bottom buddy to wipe. People who use this aids have trouble reaching their bum. It could be that they are bariatrics, disabled or have different handicaps caused by hip replacement or other injuries.
If you go for the bottom buddy as your toilet wiping aid of choice, you will find that it has about 11 inches length that allows you to reach your bum with ease. The head that holds the toilet paper has a good grip as well as is soft so that you do not hurt your butt cheeks as you wipe yourself.
- Incontinence products
Though most seniors, especially men, do not want to talk about it, they have incontinence. It could be urinary or bowel incontinence. Incontinence means that you do not have control of your urethral or sphincter muscles and so pee or stool flows freely without your intention to let it go.
We have a wide list of incontinence products that they could try.
- Bed exit alarms
Bed falls have been said to cause all manner of injuries from head, wrists, back bone or even hip fractures. According to the CDC, every yea, an average of 3 million people are treated after bed falls. Other than physical injury, bed falls can also cause trauma and fear of climbing up a bed.
As a caregiver, you need to make sure that your elderly is not suffering from any physical or emotional injuries caused by bed falls. And fortunately, science and technology has come a long way to help you out.
You can install some great, state of the art bed exit alarms that are going to alert you when a patient turns on the bed in a way that might cause a bed fall. Once alerted, you need to make haste and go to the patient to check up on them lest they roll again and fall.
Bed exit alarms are great especially for dementia patients who are highly likely to wake up confused and wander around aimlessly or get up without realizing that unsafe alighting from the bed may cause a fall.
- Reacher grabbers
Elderly people can benefit alot from pick up tools for seniors. With these reacher grabbers, the senior is able to pick up things that were not easy to reach. It could be something placed up high on shelves or under the table and they are struggling to pick them up.
After review of the best reacher grabbers, we have found the Unger nifty grabber to be a good choice for elderly people as well as those who have just had a hip replacement surgery and are struggling to get things that are far from their reach.
- Padded bed rails
To avoid bed falls in seniors, one could also invest in good bed rails. The problem with bed rails though is that they might end up causing entrapment. And you do not want your elderly to be hurt or die due to a bed entrapment, no?
Well, you could avoid this by getting some good padded bed rails that will prevent bed falls as well as prevent bed entrapment since no one could get stuck in a well padded rail.
- Flushable wipes and toilet paper moisteners
If you are a constant reader of this blog, you very well know that toilet paper is not something that I recommend people to use because it does not do the job of wiping well. So your elderly will have skidmarks as they walk around. Two, toilet paper can cause anal fissures as well as other discomforts such as UTI especially in elderly women.
Now, no one wants all this trrouble because of toilet paper, right? Well, why not use alternatives such as flushable wipes which have been found to be friendly for your septic system or even toilet paper moisteners that will wipe your bum so well.
