How Does Dementia Affect Grooming and Hygiene Routines?
Dementia is a progressive disease where brain function slowly diminishes as plaque builds up and impacts cell health. As cells die, memory, speech, and motor skills worsen. How does this affect your mom’s routine grooming and hygiene practices?
Fine Motor Skills Diminish
As dementia progresses, small things like gripping a toothbrush or hairbrush become challenging. Hand strength isn’t the same. Your mom will start to struggle with brushing and flossing her teeth, brushing and styling her hair, and using tweezers to groom her eyebrows.
Another problem with diminishing fine motor skills is that your mom may not be able to squeeze a bottle to get body wash, shampoo, or conditioner. She may not have the hand strength to suds up her hair properly.
Your mom slowly weakens. She’ll lose control of her bladder over time, and she might need help cleaning herself and changing clothes after an accident. She won’t be able to always communicate what’s wrong, either.
When she has accidents or needs to use the toilet, you have to be alert to her behavior. She may struggle to clean up properly after using the toilet, so she can’t be left alone to clean up after herself. Toileting and incontinence care are essential.
Vision Changes
Her vision is also going to change, and she may not understand that body wash isn’t skin cream or toothpaste isn’t eye cream. As your mom’s vision changes, you have to be very careful that she’s not accidentally grabbing a package of sanitizing cleaning wipes and thinking she has baby wipes.
Reading Comprehension Is Affected
Your mom’s reading comprehension changes over time, too. She will struggle with longer sentences, and things she did read don’t stick in her mind. Her memory skills will slowly disappear.
This means that while she may currently be able to read the instructions on her facial care kit, she may not be able to months from now. She’ll start using products incorrectly, which increases the chances of skin irritation.
Personal Care at Home Allows You to Focus on Other Tasks
Personal care at home is not only there to help her, but it also helps you. Your mom may lash out if you try to help her. Sometimes, it’s just easier to have a personal care at home aide for showers, toileting, and other personal care needs.
While a caregiver takes care of your mom’s personal needs, you have time for self-care. You could sleep in, go for a walk, or read a book and de-stress.
When your mom has been diagnosed with dementia, make sure she has the help she needs with grooming and hygiene. While her needs may not be much at first, this will change. Help her adjust to having help from personal care at home aides now to make it easier in the future.
If you or an aging loved one are considering personal care at home in Matawan, NJ, please contact the caring staff at Lares Home Care 888-492-3538 or 732-566-1112.
