I see you are caring for a wife with dementia. How often would she normally have changed her clothes a few years ago? Some people get the idea that once they are older and they are not doing physical labour any more they don't need to change their clothes as often, but you don't need to let your standards slip just because you are aging. I would think with dementia there are probably quite a few spills at meal time and probably issues with incontinence, at least occasionally. You need to change her underwear daily (or more often than that if needed), her blouses and pants when she soils them or after her shower, every few days at least.
I would change daily --- as there is likely food spills and perhaps leakage from depends, etc. Many seniors, especialy those with dementia, don't see the need for this so you may be having a battle. My MIL is in assisted liv. and (literally) we have the aides hiding yesterday's clothes as she is hamper diving to retrieve items thrown into it! On a previous thread, someone suggested buying duplicates of clothes and having the set washed while the clean set was put on. Between age and memory and yes sometimes depression, the senior doesn't see the need for it all.
I would say change underwear daily and blouses and pants every few days or when they spill food or soil themselves (and they will). Normally a woman would wear something different every day but not necessarily throw yesterday's in the hamper unless its dirty. Now that I'm not working, I sometimes wear the same thing for two days if its still clean and fresh and I'm just hanging around the house or doing chores, but never more than that. Check the condition of what she is wearing at night, either hang it up if still clean or put in hamper and lay out a different outfit for morning. Sadly dementia robs a woman of her normal interest in caring about looking good. For the past five years my mother will wear the same thing every day, filthy, until I make her change. They just don't notice any more. We buy her new clothes and she won't wear them.
I agree with the comments above. If this is a woman, tell her how nice her clothes smell after you wash them. Depending on how soiled she gets, you can purchased panty 'liners' like Pose poise website (they are disposable and line the panty, so you can throw them away every day)... not too expensive and you can buy them at the Dollar Tree for $1.
It's a good idea to keep up hygiene in the early stages because it will only get harder. If I had not insisted on daily showers when my husband was going through a stage of not wanting to get wet, I would be in trouble now that he is totally incontinent. He sleeps soundly for 14 hours a night and definitely needs a shower when I get him up.
I think everyone did a good job of answering. I've only to add that my father dresses himself but sleeps in his underwear so he forgets to put on fresh underwear. I have post-its on his mirrors which tell him to put on fresh underwear every day (he laughs about it) and then I go through his closet when I do laundry and pull shirts he has worn and hung back up. He doesn't soil himself so I wash the pants once in awhile. But he wears his oldest threadbare ones which I will try to replace with duplicates. His biggest problem is that he has too many clothes to choose from so he wears the ones at the front of the closet which are the easiest to see. I think he has always been this way to a certain extent. But he used to link underwear change to a daily shower and now he only showers once a week. He has Depends available to him if he feels incontinent and he will switch on his own between them and his underwear, but he throws the Depends in the laundry hamper. He also prefers khakis because they are lighter weight, have pockets and he can wear a belt.
Change daily and here is why: the elderly can't bathe well enough and their garments tend to have an oodor! Trust me-my mother's did until I got them away from her to launder them!
See All Answers