How do you get parent to change clothes (or at least underwear) daily?

In ALZ seminar, they said the elderly feel comfortable with the same clothes and/or may forget that they had them on the day before. They suggested buying duplicates of the clothes they like. We do this with my mother. I find a style she likes and then buy it in every color they make or a few in the same color. If they aren't resistant to help, the person who does the laundry might ask your father about his week ahead and see if he'd like anything special to wear for appointments or lunches or yard work and then help him pick these clothes out and line them up in the closet near each other. A few weeks or months of doing this may help for a while. Someone is with my mom daily (myself or caregiver), so we can help with choices or remind her it's time for something to be washed. Good luck nlaprad.

Same problem here with my 97 yr old father. He has a closet full of clothes and drawers full of underwear. I try to nicely tell him about showering, not wanting to hurt his feelings. I don't understand why he or other don't want to shower. He has two seats in the shower plus hand grab bars. When he was a young man he was very handsome and was extremely fussy about what he wore and how he looked. Another common issue with some elderly. My grandmother and mother always were clean and smelled good.

Alzh & Dementia patients get to a stage were the fear water not sure why but they do. It's just like they don't like mirrors because they don't recognize themselves. Sad:( I have this problem with one of my clients so what I do is I set up everything in the bathroom & as they are sitting in the bathroom I hand them a washcloth & ask them to wash their face & then cont to hand them the washcloth so they can wash their arms & so on. As they are washing you remove their clothed calmly & slowly. Also talk to them keep them focused on washing & not what you are doing. Also if they fight you with taking their clothes off give them something to hold on to. By the time they realize what happened they are changed & clean. Extra bonus that works for me is I always put 3 blankets, 3 towels & their clothes in the dryer before getting them in the shower or sponge bath. To keep everything warm wrap them in that extra blanket. When you take that out throw & extra blanket in dryer while getting them dressed so when they come out they can wrap themselves up with a warm cozy blanket.

Part 2 of my answer... With those blankets wrap them up with those blankets when you get them out of the shower. I also put their bottle of lotion in a sinkful of nice hot water while you're showering them. Before applying the lotion shake the bottle well so the lotion gets mixed well. Good luck & I do hope these ideas help.

I realized my parents were only changing underwear once a week. Now that Dad is currently with us I went to twice a week working up to every other day. I have purchased colored underwear and alternate with white so I know he has clean underwear on.

I have already noticed that my husband's laundry is less than mine and he is only 63. He showers less often, too. I have a feeling this will evolve over time. And they really do have a favorite shirt, a favorite jacket, usually something well worn and flexible.

ditto ditto to one of the responses I too purchase two to three outfits different colors but are the same. My mom absolutely hates to wash be it bathing or sponge bathing. I don't argue with her I try to get it done early in the morning when she is more agreeable and she's at her best. However after twelve she gives me all kinds of trouble about washing. So timing makes a difference with Alzheimers. They spiral downward after ten am to twelve pm. I pray this helps someone.

Luckily my Mom doesn't wear underwear to bed but she folds them nicely with the clothes she had on that day, so I have to snatch them up after she changes and put them in the laundry.
If by chance she wears them to bed she'll argue with me in the morning that they are clean!

This is all great! In my case, my MIL wears the same clothes day in and out and then sleeps in them as well! Physically she's in better shape than me, and she gets very defensive if you suggest she changes her clothes. She used to hand wash her clothes before we came back to live with her, and used to take her wet undies and lay them in front of the heat register to dry(even in the summer when there was no heat running!) Now I don't see her washing anything. She never had a washing machine, so I try to remind her we have one now and if she puts her clothes in this basket I will wash them for her. But I never get any underwear. I guess one of these days, they may stand up and walk away by themselves!

Well if you figure this out please let me know..........Mom is the same way and thinks that wearing the same underwear for a week at time is fine........I cringe at the thought of it and would personally throw the underwear out after wearing them for that long but she thinks it is perfectly fine........

I suppose we might find it a bit less stressful if we revised our own standards a bit. It may be our habit to wear clean undies, at least, daily but would it kill us if we didn't? I'm not planning to find out, but I doubt it.

My mother declines to get out of her pyjamas unless we're going out of the house for some reason. I remind her, humorously, that many people do get dressed even if they're not going out; but the fact is she can't be bothered unless there's an actual motive. Since this is my moment to switch her vest and pants, if it doesn't happen I do think "eeuw" - but if I'm quick I can at least get in there with a new Tena pad mornings and bed-time.

And, I have to admit, so far she doesn't smell. She made me promise ages ago that I would tell her if she ever did get "fragrant" - I'll be interested to see if she still cares should that time come.

I am glad I read through the comments. Good tips. TY everyone.

I have not tried this yet, but thought of an idea. I am going to get a box of some sort and divide it into 7 slots, labeled Sunday through Saturday. Then I will put a clean pair of undies and socks in each slot. When my dad gets dressed in the morning, he will get items from the box, like he does his pills. It may be to late for this habit to take hold (he is 96) but at least I will be able to look at the box and tell how long he has the same ones on.

Or 12 slots, Lynn - January through December?

[don't worry, this is an extremely old joke not an actual suggestion!]

So, what if he takes them from the wrong slot, or even gets his underwear from the bathroom floor or dirty laundry basket?????

I still keep my legs shaved, if only because,  if I should pass out, be in a coma, when I wake up I can tell how long I was "out" by the hair growth.  lol.

Like I said, I haven't tried it yet so we'll see if it produces any positive results. I did decide to use one of those over the door organizers and hang it on his bathroom door where it will constantly be seen. He is going away for a week so I will wait till he returns to start.

Thank you,
When my grandmother dresses for bed, I go into her room and take the clothes she has left on her dresser for the next day and place themin the laundry baskest. I think I now need to remove the basket from her room as I am finding that although I have placed clothes in there every night she often has less laundry to wash at the end of the week.

We have been struggling with my mother-in-law to change clothes. We finally decided to just make sure she has on clean clothes before any appointments or outings, and at least once a week. Will see how that goes.

My mother-in-law changes underwear and "believes" she changes clothes. We have finally decided to not worry about clothing changes unless she has an appt or outing or before church. And will make sure she changes at least weekly. Figured out we were only frustrating ourselves.

I'm thinking of putting hang clips or a shelf on the wall for each day of the week. Clean underwear on the clips and a fresh outfit of clothes on the shelf. At this point I can put days of the week over each wall clip / shelf even though my mom does not remember what dat it is this shows what to wear for a new day.

If you help get them to the bathroom it helps alot. I just snatch up Moms old undies and put the new ones on while shes sitting on the "throne" Same with changing pants/ pj bottoms. I dont worry about bathing or washing hair that much . Sponge bath is fine and we just do hair every couple weeks in sink ( then again she keeps hers pinned up ) We try to get her on shower once in a while ( its a walk in ) but doing hair and shower same day got to be too much