My mom (79) has Lewy Body Dementia and is starting to wander at night. Any ideas on keeping her safe in her room?

With my aunt we switched the doorknobs to lock on the outside because we have to keep her safe is the bottem line if she got out and froze to death or got a heat stroke or hit by a car maybe fall into a ditch break a leg hip arm whatever works !! We switched the doorknobs it was perfect then ...

Malyywa, I have read if you place a black throw rug in front a door, the person who has dementia will think it is a hole in the floor and will be afraid to go any further. I've never needed to do this, so I don't know how successful this will work.

I have alarms on all of my doors that I bought on Amazon. You can make it a simple chime or an alarming siren. I work from home and my husband watches TV in an other room. There have been times that I hear that bell go off and right away I can get to him before he gets too far. It really is a stress reliever especially at night. Hope that us helpful.

I just signed my mother up with project lifesaver with the police department and put a small door alarm on her door and on the garage door. The other outside doors are locked when I go to bed and the keys are kept in my room. These little door alarms can be turned off during the day and only set at night or when I am in my room. They dont keep her from opening the door but the alarm is loud enough that it would wake me out of a deep sleep. Good luck.

I use a baby monitor - so if I am awake I hear the first stirrings of husband (Parkinson's - stage 4/dementia/clinically blind) - trying to get up (either from a chair or a bed). However, when I'm in another room - sometimes the baby monitor isn't loud enough (I've tried a couple different ones). I finally got two alarm pads for chairs/beds - through Amazon. The alarm pad sits on the chair or lays on the bed. The alarm box is a distance away - or put behind them (when sitting so they can't learn to turn it off). If a person goes to get up (either from a chair or bed) the alarm will go off - beep - beep - beep - and will continue to do so - until someone (caregiver) turns it off. It is quite loud and I can hear it anywhere in the house. Sometimes (not always) - when husband hears the alarm, it reminds him to stay and not try to get up (as he will fall) - or I'll just say - it slows him down a bit - giving me enough time to get to his room / side. For me - the alarm pads have been a life safer - allowing me to move around the house and not have to stay close to him. They box uses a couple of batteries. Depending on how much the box beeps, will obviously depend on how long the batteries last. I think I change them about every nine +/- months or so.

I wonder if in-bed stimulation might be better than worrying about her getting up. Perhaps a mobile of birds or something she likes, white noise, soft music, a stuffed animal or 2 for stroking. I assume she has overnight undies so she doesn't have to get up? Good luck trying things until something "clicks."

We had a terrible time with my dad getting up all night long and even going outside to pee! Nothing worked until his Doctor prescribed my dad trazadone 100mg and melatonin5mg about 1 hour before bed. I also have Arlo cameras with an alert to my phone if he gets up (now rare) I can direct him back to bed.

mom went thru that stage then eventually stopped. I got baby monitors and Amcrest cameras that I can hear see and talk to her thru from anywhere in the house. The cameras even work on my phone from anywhere. Sometimes just talking to them and ensuring everything is ok helps. The baby monitors have been a life safer keeping me from getting up throughout the night. Sometimes telling tell it’s bedtime and everyone is sleeping helps. Good luck. It’s a tough, exhausting and sometimes scary stage.

I have Yi cameras throughout the house that I can set to alert me to any movement or sounds. No contract required, only internet. I get these alerts to my cellphone. I just installed doorbell cameras to the outside doors, but they are on the inside of the house so I get alerted if she approaches the door. They also can sound an alarm to go off if it opens.

Gold luck and prayers to all of us taking care of our loved ones. It's not easy.

It may be time to hire night care, if possible. This wandering may escalate to incontinence in living areas and other things like that. You may also want to counsel for sleep medication or some sort of anti-anxiety med.