Hello, My wife and I have been caring for my 92 yr old mother in our home for the past 5 plus yrs. She has had a mild case of dementia during this time. I really feel bad about asking about such a minor problem as I go to this site daily. I never have heard anything about our problem. My mother does not know what to do with toilet paper used or not.
(Tell her "Now that you are 90 and have such delicate skin, it is especially important to get cleaned very carefully. I'll help you with that from now on.")
After thoroughly washing her hands, put some nice-smelling lotion on.
Washclothes make nice reusable but single-use towels. One use and they go into the hamper.
She stuffs her bag with tons of tissue. If I ask her why she has so much tissue, she simply replies: "Why? Something wrong with that?" That's her phrase for everything. =]
I do have to go behind her everytime she uses the bathroom because it's something different every time she comes out. It' either shredded tissue all over the floor or it's little roles of it strewn from the foot mat to the base of the toilet.
She grunts a lot when in there...so it concerns me but maybe it's just her trying to do something...who knows?
She never washes her hands which is a gross out so I give her a damp paper towel and she uses that. then she'll wipe her face and neck with it. That grinds my gears but I remind myself she doesn't understand what she's doing at this stage in her life fully.
It's rough to go behind her so much, but I tried to trust her for a few days...didn't work. You have to respond like she's a child in ways. So I stay on my grind to make sure my place is spic and span until I take her home in the evenings.
Boy, she really loves tissue. I think it's from days before when older women carried tissue in their bags for everything...lol