Three Reasons Your Elderly Loved One May Not Be Bathing

Your loved one is living on her own and seems to be managing well without a lot of help, but you start to notice that she doesn’t seem to be showering or bathing as often as she should. You might notice that her hair looks dirty and uncombed. Or you could spot areas on her body that are stained or covered with dirt, especially those hard-to-reach areas. Finally, it might be that you begin to notice some unpleasant body odor around, seeming to indicate that she isn’t washing up as often as she should.

Why Personal Hygiene is Important to Overall Health

While it can be uncomfortable talking to your loved one about her hygiene, staying clean is important to her health. Bad hygiene practices can increase the risk of infection. Bacteria that remains on the skin or under the fingernails can be introduced to the body by rubbing her eyes or getting a scratch. Those bacteria can cause her to be sick more often or lead to further complications such as pneumonia or influenza.

Poor hygiene can also affect your loved one mentally. She might begin to feel self-conscious about how she looks or smells and avoid people. Or she might not like the way she presents herself and starts to withdraw due to feeling self-conscious. Even if your loved one seems comfortable with skipping her routine bathing and hygiene steps, it still can affect her mentally and emotionally.

Three Reasons Why Your Loved One Isn’t Bathing

When it comes to taking a bath or shower, there can be several reasons why your loved one has stopped or has greatly reduced the amount of bathing she is taking part in each week.

• Emotional or Mental Health Struggles. One common indicator of depression is often a lack of desire to take a bath or shower. Her depression may make her too fatigued to shower, or be creating feelings that no one cares about her so she doesn’t see the need to bother with self-care.
• Her Physical Limitations Might Cause Her to Fear the Shower or Bath. If your loved one has fallen once in the bathroom, she might be afraid to try it again alone. If she struggles with balance or limited mobility, she might worry about injuring herself on a slippery floor.
• Her Cognitive Abilities. In the early stages of dementia, your loved one might struggle with short-term memory and forget that she hasn’t showered for a few days. She might also develop an irrational fear of the bath or shower.

24-hour Home Care Can Assist with Personal Care

Since not showering is often indicative of other issues, finding help for your loved one to remain in her home and maintain proper personal care is important for her to remain in her home. A 24-hour home care team can step in and help with her self-care process both at night before she goes to bed and in the morning before she starts her day. 24-hour home care providers can assist with baths, showers, combing hair, brushing teeth, and so much more. Since they have someone onsite at all times, your loved one can get the help she needs no matter what time of day it is.

If you or an aging loved one are considering 24-hour home care in Mamaroneck, NY, please contact the caring staff at Griswold Care Pairing for Scarsdale & Yonkers today. (914) 337-5028.