There is no normal with incontinence. It is common for the elderly to have issues with the bladder of frequency and urgency; it's actually a brain thing in most cases and has little to do with the amount of urine in the bladder. If you are having any problem with odd odors you should try to get a test and do a simple dipstick test for any evidence of bladder infection, but I would say that three a day would be a LOW, as in very low number of depends used by someone with incontinence issues.
For my mom 86, I change her depends average of 5 times a day. Basically every trip to the commode I change her. It is necessary for my mom as she is incontinent both urine and fecal. I don't want to chance her getting a rash or overflowing onto her clothes or furniture.
My Mom had above normal urine output. She even had an Interstim urinary pacer. She changed every two hours both day and night. 12-14 pairs per day. Big expense for her. Three doesn’t sound like enough.
My mom tried to go 'on the cheap' and used a depends with 2-3 pads tucked in there too. She still somehow was able to overflow all of this. I actually think all the extra padding caused a pathway for the urine to somehow bypass the depends and simply flow down her legs.
We never did come to a comfortable solution to the incontinence.
I have a friend whose 40 yo daughter is severely mentally impaired. She is at the mental level of a non-verbal 3 yo, but she's an adult. My friend has her underwear changed 4-6 times a day, or as quickly as possible. A full, wet depends is miserable, and while this woman cannot verbalize her discomfort, she is agitated and irritable when wet. Friend says the cost of the underwear is prohibitive, but luckily, they're literally millionaires and this isn't an issue at all.
Is that person drinking enough water? The use of 3 depends seems quite low.
We never did come to a comfortable solution to the incontinence.
I have a friend whose 40 yo daughter is severely mentally impaired. She is at the mental level of a non-verbal 3 yo, but she's an adult. My friend has her underwear changed 4-6 times a day, or as quickly as possible. A full, wet depends is miserable, and while this woman cannot verbalize her discomfort, she is agitated and irritable when wet. Friend says the cost of the underwear is prohibitive, but luckily, they're literally millionaires and this isn't an issue at all.
My mother went through tons of them, because she was on diuretics. She went through one every two hours.