By Tiffany White
Sheila Carter, owner of Heartsong Memory Care, shares her top five secrets to success when it comes to bath time refusals.
- Find out why the person refuses to bathe. Is it fear of water? Fear of falling? Too cold?
- Don’t ask “Do you want to…” Instead, get their help doing something in the bathroom, engage them in positive conversation, and subtly move into “let’s clean up while we’re here.”
- Avoid words that trigger negative responses such as bath. Clean up may be a better phrase.
- If they refuse, try again later using a different approach or have a different person take on the task.
- Use an outside resource if you can. Let someone else take over with bathing so you can retain your caregiving/family relationship without that battle.
Find more caregiving tips in our spring issue of Today’s Transitions and nominate an organization or business for this award.
