How do you encourage adequate hydration?

@babbsjoy, I added your question to the Chronic Kidney Disease support group as well to get their tips.

This must be so hard. Like they say, you can bring a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. I can see that you have been very creative in trying to encourage your dad to drink. Despite that effort, he's not meeting you halfway. He gets annoyed. You're drained and at your wit's end. What a carousel!

It bears repeating. This is hard.

Am I correct in assuming he understands the importance of hydration from both you and from his nephrologist? Is he also declining to take some of his meds?

@colleenyoung
Thank you for expanding the topic. So far he has not declined to take any of his meds. He just complains about taking them, or is annoyed to. But he takes them. And yes, he understands the importance of hydration.

. I’m just trying to figure out how to make hydration less of a chore and more enjoyable…..

@babbsjoy Well, I am on a laundry list of meds and know firsthand just how tiresome it can be. Staring at a handful of pills of different colors/sizes/reasons just isn't my cup of tea.

Crushed ice in a glass of water is actually refreshing to the palate. Maybe add a packet of True Lemon, which is actually crystallized lemon. They also make True Lime and True Orange, same thing. It gives a bit of a taste but not overwhelming.

Hydration is such a key factor in kidney health. As you said, too much is no good, not enough is no good. I really think it is a balancing act each day, depending on weather, activity level, diet. Is your dad on dialysis, as that may play a part also. Most good nephrologists will tell you to drink before you are thirsty. If you wait until your body says, "drink", you've waited too long!
Ginger

@gingerw
Thanks Ginger! I ordered your flavoring suggestions from Amazon straight away—will be here in the morning! (He is not on dialysis). And I am sorry you are on the tedious road of meds too! (I have serious osteoporosis of the spine and know that I am blessed to have access to meds—but it is an injection in the belly. I don’t always feel grateful when I know I need to do it before I go to bed, so I get it, at least a little bit! Plus it is probably tedious for him to have his daughter showing up with meds all the time, as well!)

My husband also resists drinking water, but loves Coke. He will also drink water with Crystal Light flavorings and likes popsicles.
Good luck!

@pierwell
Thank you!

I thought of 2 things as I was going through this thread. Both hinge on giving your dad as much control as is safe & possible over his own health situation. (Losing control of aspects of our self care as we age is difficult.)
1) Is it possible that your dad could take charge of his own med administration? You could set them up, provide a timer, help him develop a charting system…..including taking them with an agreed upon amount / type of fluid. You could check & oversee the system unbeknownst to your dad.
If that is a no go, how about negotiating with him to
2) take charge of his hydration? You could develop a menu of sorts with doc approved types & amounts of beverages to pick from. The items have to be alternated with coffee. (NO choosing coffee every time!) Keep a stash of the approved types & sizes of beverages and have him pick what he will drink at med time.
Hopefully he will appreciate and respond well to having some say in the matter. He sounds like an intelligent and reasonable person in that he can”see through” what you are trying to do. I know I get irritable if I have to rely on others to take care of me. I’d rather do it myself. These 2 ideas would let him retain some control of his care.

@gingerw
The True Lemon was a hit yesterday, thank you! Have the other flavors yet for him to try!

@cehunt57
Thank you for putting so much thought into this—it really warms my heart and makes me feel less isolated in this issue!

Dad has macular in both eyes, and his eyesight is pretty bad overall now. He appreciates help with the meds, and they are the one thing that he for years has readily announced that he needs help with. At one time I could sort meds for each time of day into colorful plastic shot glasses (the colors help him see white pills that could get stuck to bottom of glass), and set them up left to right on the dining room table, and write down in very large sharpy on paper towel the time frame to take them, and he could “help himself” throughout the day. (Many meds have to be taken timed so many hours from others, so a conventional sorter doesn’t work, as there is flexibility in what time of day certain things are taken, then other things are timed off of that…if that makes sense?—so we just work with his schedule of sleep, activity, etc on any given day). But Now I have to watch him take each set of meds/vitamins provided. He cannot see well enough to read the time frames. If I just set a dose on his table “to take”, at any given time, I will 99% of the time find them still sitting there hours later, as he will forget I told him they are there. Or, he will have knocked over the shot glass and pills will be all over, including the floor, and he will just not worry about it and leave it (cause he cannot see well enough to retrieve them). Also, some pills are tiny and either get dropped or pop back out of his mouth before he swallows. His BP is such that I need to take his BP and HR before providing that med twice a day…..

As for hydration, I took your suggestion a bit later yesterday after I read it. I think you are correct in that some of his irritability over hydration is feeling more and more control over his own life diminishing. I made him a cup of the new True Lemon another person recommended, and just gave it to him letting him know it was something new I thought sounded good, to let me know what he thinks. He sipped it off and on throughout the afternoon and enjoyed it rather than feeling like he had to force a quantity down. Later I asked if he would like to try another flavor, and he declined as he still had some lemon left.

He has a small refrigerator in his room and I have tried in the past to have a variety of things in it (and on top of it so at room temp if preferred), for him to choose himself. The problem we have run into is he usually just doesn’t feel thirsty, so he would not think to hydrate throughout the day, except for coffee. He also now is suppose to have no more than a certain amount per day, but should have a consistent amount approaching the max daily. When I set out containers/bottles equaling this and then put only the number of Keurig pods for the max coffee doc said to have per day in his coffee supply (he has a Keurig in his room), the none coffee stuff looked overwhelming I think and like a chore. Plus limiting the coffee, although he knew I was putting out a bit more than the doc recommended, felt controlling. So now we wing it a bit more where I fill his coffee drawer up with coffee and tea he takes at will. (And I know how many we start with so I can gauge, along with water level left, about how many cups have been consumed and quietly factor that into the day’s consumption) But asking more about what he would like for the other hydration and providing more choices and autonomy of drinking it I think is a wise suggestion and I thank you, I think it will help a lot!

@babbsjoy Awesome to hear!

And, I really truly echo what @cehunt Cheryl mentioned in her post. Letting your dad know he has a part in his decisions taking meds is critical! When my dad was in a skilled nursing facility, he started balking at his nighttime medications. My sister used to bribe him with a "toddy", which he enjoyed. One evening he wanted a toddy, she said "no", and it was a standoff! I recall looking over at her, and including him in my response. ""Hey, Xxxx, put yourself in his place. What harm will a toddy do, really?" He got his toddy, got his meds. He was happy, I was relieved, my sister was p***ed off. Oh, well!
Ginger