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Any advice for dwelling on going to the bathroom?

Caregivers: Dementia | Last Active: Sep 17 2:43pm | Replies (21)

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@tullynut

Frustrating for sure. One thing I would try would be to set some kind of an alarm, maybe on your cell phone, that will go off. “ When it is time to go to the bathroom”. Maybe start out with a 30 minute interval, if she brings up the bathroom before the alarm, you can point out it’s not time yet. The alarm hasn’t gone off, lather, rinse repeat, knowing that the alarm is gonna go off within a couple minutes yourself to the bathroom. As soon as the alarm goes off, say mom it’s time to go to the bathroom! Take her in and she either goes or she doesn’t, that doesn’t really matter. If you get a sense for how frequently she truly biologically needs to go to the bathroom and it’s every three hours, you can be good to extend the time period from 30 minutes to 45 to 60 to whatever. But you’re establishing a pattern that lesson until the alarm goes off it’s not time to go to the bathroom. Obviously if she starts having accidents , you may have to alter the timing or have her check for urinary tract infection. I’m sure she’s struggling with losing control and lack of awareness about basic biological functions and that is heartbreaking. I hope this works.

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Replies to "Frustrating for sure. One thing I would try would be to set some kind of an..."

We started doing this about a week ago, she then wines and carries on like a toddler. Hopefully after a few weeks this will become routine and get easier but then again with dementia probably not because everything seems to be “new” to them. We will continue because I know she doesn’t always have to go. Many times after her acting out if I can get it out of her head and get her focused on something else she forgets all about it and goes even longer than I originally told her she needed to wait til.
Your advise is what seems to help the most right now, thank you!