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BLG2024 Asked February 20, 2025

Husband has no idea when he has a bowel movement. Any advice?

cwillie Feb 21, 2025
Yeah :-(
It can help if you schedule bathroom visits for the times he regularly has a bowel movement, generally that's after meals. But with my mom it was more of a lucky bonus than an expectation that we'd actually get the timing right.

Grandma1954 Feb 21, 2025
Bowl and bladder incontinence is common with dementia as well as other conditions.
He should be wearing disposable incontinence underwear. (Depends is one brand there are many others)
Remove all his "regular" underwear and replace it with the disposable.
You can try to get him on a "schedule" if you have an idea when he normally has a bowel movement you can try to encourage him to get to the bathroom at that time. For me it was pretty easy, I got my Husband on / over the toilet (he was on a shower wheelchair) as soon as I got him up and I would shave him and brush his teeth before his shower and he would go then.

Has he been diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia? If not it might be a good idea to get a diagnosis as confirming it or ruling it out can be important later as there are medications that a person with LBD should not take.

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funkygrandma59 Feb 21, 2025
Since you don't actually ask a question here, all I will say is that perhaps your husband now has Lewy Body dementia which often goes hand and hand with Parkinson's, and with dementia often comes incontinence from both ends.
So I hope that you now have your husband wearing only Depends(or the like)on a full-time basis.

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