Solutions for Diaper Rash

Posted by Jeanne Lowry on September 3, 2014 under BladderMatters, Everything Baby | Read the First Comment

The cause of diaper rash can be caused by several different issues. But the root of the problem is in the term itself. It’s diaper rash. Wouldn’t it just be so easy if that diaper didn’t have to be used? But if it’s necessary, what is the alternative?

Several sources suggest leaving the diaper off for extended periods of times. Well and good. But how to do that? How can the parents or caregivers create situations where a diaper isn’t needed?

Enter the underpad. Yes, underpads are often used as a backup to regular diapers, but they have more to offer. Especially during nap time.

With a baby, if you’ve observed that they don’t move too much during nap time, you can go ahead and take the diaper off. Place the child in their crib, on their back, with one or two underpads under them. With a boy, place a cloth over the groin. With disposable underpads, all urine will be quickly collected during naptime. Afterward, you can wipe the baby off or have a quick bath (warm water only, or a very mild soap).

With adults, an underpad can be used during naptime (during which people move around less than at night) or during some downtime. Reading or TV watching can pass the time while the area airs out. When ready to put the brief back on, use a soft cloth with warm water to wash the area, maybe some gentle wash. If you like, you can put cream on at this point, but stay away from powders like cornstarch or baby powder. Both can lead to a bacterial problem.

Much luck and tell us what you’ve had success with when diaper rash appears!

Talking with Others About Incontinence

Posted by Jeanne Lowry on September 2, 2014 under BladderMatters | Be the First to Comment

Discussing incontinence with your doctor is one thing. Talking about it with family and friends is another. It suddenly goes from being a medical issue to a personal one. Depending on your family, you likely don’t know the details of their bathroom habits. So why should they get to know yours?

Telling a friend or a family member can be beneficial for several reasons. You might find it somewhat therapeutic to share this detail with someone you’re close to. Or it could just be easier than trying to hide the problem.

When you take charge and tell that person, you’re taking control of the situation. If you don’t act embarrassed, the other person will likely follow your lead. If you are considering talking to someone about the issue, keep this in mind: how would you feel if someone came to you and told you they were incontinent? You’d probably just say “Okay.” As a contributor put it on the site IncontinentSupport.org, “[…]really I guess that is the way it should be – what difference does it make to me if someone I barely know is wearing a diaper? Big whoop.”

An explanation may be helpful as well. Although it’s up to you how much detail you want to share about your incontinence, your friend or loved one may be better able to process that information if you tell them how you came to be incontinent. Even a simple explanation of “I was in a car accident,” or “it’s a side effect of surgery,” can be helpful in their understanding of the condition.

Who knows about your incontinence should be up to you. At TotalHomeCareSupplies.com, our incontinence supplies are inconspicuous enough so no one can tell what you’re wearing – unless you tell them.

When Your Baby is Sick

Posted by Jeanne Lowry on August 29, 2014 under Everything Baby | Be the First to Comment

Having a sick baby can be scary, but with some knowledge, some extra liquids and some sympathy, most colds and flus will disappear without issue. Check out these tips for what to do when your baby is sick.

Pay attention
You know your baby best. You don’t need to measure how much liquid winds up in their diaper each time you change it, but you will get an idea for the weight and feel of a normal used diaper. If it seems that the diaper is less full (or more full) than normal, start to pay attention. Peeing more or less often or having different types of poop can indicate an oncoming sickness or infection. See if there are other symptoms that you may have missed.

Keep them cool
If your baby has a fever, you generally do not need to worry, as long as they are not a newborn and the fever stays under 102 degrees. But you will help them be more comfortable by helping to keep them cool. Remove their clothing, offer more liquids than normal and give them a bath in tepid water. Don’t have time for the full bath immersion, or maybe they’re too fussy? You can also wipe them down with baby wipes. Just a quick swipe could lower their temperature as much as a couple degrees!

Slow down
You’re not sick, so just keep up all your normal tasks, right? Wrong. Having a sick child can take a lot out of you. So go ahead and let people know you might flake on that plan, and let them know why. They’ll understand. Then take that time to just relax and hold your child, or stay with them while they nap. You’ll both feel better for it.

Group Vacations

Posted by Jeanne Lowry on August 27, 2014 under BladderMatters, Caregiver Corner | Be the First to Comment

Summer vacations are coming to a close, but the fall is a great time to travel as well. Lower temperatures and fewer travelers can mean better deals and better experiences.

As a caregiver, you may find yourself longing for a vacation, but wondering how it’s possible to leave your charge. Or, perhaps your charge (your parents, child, sibling or other) has been asking to take a trip. How can you pull off taking a vacation with so many care issues to think about?

One option is to create a group to go on vacation with you. If there are more people than just you to help take care of your charge, there’s less for you to worry about. Are there siblings that can help out with your elderly parents? Can your parents help out with your special needs child? Coordinating times and destinations can be tough, but with the right planning, all parties can find enjoyable activities and alone time.

Another option is to participate in a pre-planned trip. Cruises have always been popular, but these days they are catering more and more to the aging population. Some cruises now provide help to their elderly passengers. Such a trip can provide the perfect setting: you as the caregiver get to make sure your parents’ care needs are being met, and there are opportunities to relax. And leaving the country isn’t necessary: river cruises mean less travel time to the boat and more scenery while on the ship.

Whether you decide on a private or group vacation, make sure to pack all supplies your charge needs in advance. TotalHomeCareSupplies.com has all the incontinence products you need for a great trip! Bon voyage!

National Breastfeeding Month

Posted by Jeanne Lowry on August 25, 2014 under Everything Baby | Be the First to Comment

August is National Breastfeeding Month and to celebrate, the United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) is holding a social media campaign. This campaign asks the questions “What does breastfeeding mean to you and how can every one of us play a role in supporting breastfeeding?” Participants are to use the hashtags #NBM14 and #SixWords with a picture to answer. We thought we’d take today to highlight a few of these great pictures and answers:

Find the original post of the above picture here.

And our favorite:

Find the original post of the above picture here.

If you make your own on Twitter, we’d love for you to tag us (with @THCSupplies) so we could see it. And you can find all our baby supplies here, including breast pumps and accessories.

Bedwetting and Sleepovers: Tips

Posted by Jeanne Lowry on August 22, 2014 under BladderMatters | Be the First to Comment

Although it may seem like your child is stuck at home until they can grow out of their bedwetting, that doesn’t need to be the case. These days, the right products and smart moves can create moments that are memorable for all the right reasons.

Tip #1: Get the right attitude
Talk to your child about their enuresis, or their particular issue. Make sure they know what’s going on. That will help them with any fears they have about spending the night with a child who doesn’t have this problem – it will let them know they’re still normal and there’s nothing wrong with them. Let them know you’re going to let the host parents know what’s going on. Then talk to the host parents (not the other way around).

Tip #2: Find the product that works for your child
Your child needs a product that is absorbent, not bulky and makes very little noise. These Sleep Overs are all over those requirements. There are sizes for children from 45 to 140 pounds, and they have a discreet profile. Additionally, they’re cloth-backed, meaning less crinkle noises for your youngster. You can purchase a sample pack here, to find the right fit.

Tip #3: Make some adjustments
If your kid doesn’t like the idea of changing into their pull-ups at their friend’s house, ask the host parents if they can request that all kids arrive in their PJs. Provide your child with a trash bag so they can dispose of their diaper and place it back in their overnight bag. Or arrive super early and help them out, if you or the child isn’t comfortable with the host parents helping out.

Tip #4: Get social
If your child is reluctant to go to sleepovers, or you want to make sure they can handle them, host one first. That way you can be there to make sure your kid has the privacy they need.

Tip #5: Embrace technology
There are many tech pieces out there that want to help your child beat their bedwetting. But many parents find that audio alarms do not wake their child up. It seems the only option is to wake the child up themselves – not an option if your kid is at a friend’s house, or even sleep-away camp. But vibrating alarms on watches do sometimes succeed where other alarms have not.

With these tips in mind, your child should have a great sleepover and a good night’s rest (if they actually ever go to sleep!).

Alzheimer’s and Incontinence

Posted by Jeanne Lowry on August 20, 2014 under BladderMatters | Be the First to Comment

Imagine you’re sitting on the couch, at the end of the day, watching your favorite show. You’re relaxed, you’re in a good place, you’re comfortable.

Suddenly, you experience an unpleasant sensation as warm liquid pools under you, and the liquid quickly cools. How did that happen? You didn’t have to go to the bathroom a second ago, but apparently, your bladder decided otherwise.

This is what it can be like for someone with Alzheimer’s. During the disease, the messages that the bladder sends to the brain to tell it it’s time “go” can get mixed up, misdirected or lost altogether.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the only reason why people with Alzheimer’s can become incontinent. Other factors can include the medications that patients take to deal with anxiety, not remembering the location of the restroom and underlying medical problems that may not yet be addressed.

These issues may not become evident until the moderate to severe stage of Alzheimer’s, but they will have to be addressed. The caregiver can provide support by gently reminding the patient to use the restroom and by making sure the way to and from the restroom itself are easily accessible.

However, sometimes leaks happen. At that point, the caregiver may want to utilize incontinence supplies. These days, adult briefs can be an unobtrusive as the average pair of underwear. Or, if the patient refuses to wear protective underwear, an underpad can be placed on chairs and beds to manage the leak.

Alzheimer’s can be very distressing to both caregivers and patients. Taking the stress of incontinence out of the equation can help.

Caregiving in Other Countries

Posted by Jeanne Lowry on August 19, 2014 under Caregiver Corner | Be the First to Comment

The ways in which older adult caregiving differs between countries depends on that culture’s view of the elderly. Are they respected? Are they ignored? Are there laws in the country that require children to regularly visit their parents? These issues and more can influence how caregivers interact with their charges.

In several Asian countries, the elderly are held in high regard. In Korea, the celebrations for 60^th and 70^th birthdays are a huge event. In China, they recently passed a law that says children of the elderly must visit their parents, or face fines and even jail time. In Japan, most old folks live with their children. Japan has a comparatively large elderly population, meaning most adults have their parents living with them. There is such a huge aging population, in fact, that adult diapers in Japan now outsell baby diapers.

Italy has an influx of Ukrainian caregivers, who may be leaving their own families, that come take care of Italy’s elderly. Because of this, Ukrainians make up the fourth-largest immigrant population in Italy, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

In India, the smaller villages often have few opportunities for young people, who move away to cities or overseas. A company called UberHealth has recently offered a way for the children of India’s elderly to monitor their parents’ health. These long distance caregivers are able to use the software UberHealth provides to keep up with their parents’ medical records and even order cars to take them to doctor’s appointments, all from a computer thousands of miles away.

No matter which country caregivers and their charges are living in, there needs to be more support for caregivers, and there are several international organizations who are trying to provide that support. We here at TotalHomeCareSupplies.com would love to hear about any experiences you may have with caregiving outside of the US.

Baby Diaper Issues: Wiping

Posted by Jeanne Lowry on August 18, 2014 under Everything Baby | Read the First Comment

Last year, I helped out a neighbor every so often by babysitting her two-year-old. She quickly filled me in on the basics: the child’s food allergies, TV rules and diaper changing specifics. The mom mentioned something I hadn’t heard before, but a quick Internet search told me she was not alone in her thinking. She asked that I only wipe the child if there was poop, but if the child had only peed, to just change the diaper and move on. Wiping after just peeing, she suspected, caused her child diaper rash. It was just a theory she had developed over time, but does it have some validity?

Logically, yes. The idea of wiping as an adult is to keep the area dry. But when a baby is wearing a diaper, that moisture gets whisked into the fluff of the diaper. Urine is sterile at first. Bacteria only start to develop over time. Most of the time, when changing a diaper with only pee, the child’s skin will be dry.

Another issue with wiping causing diaper rash can be the wipe itself. Wipes with perfumes or alcohol can irritate the baby’s sensitive skin. Check to make sure the wipes you’re using are perfume and alcohol free, such as Cuties Premium Baby Wipes. These wipes also have the added advantage of being hypoallergenic and having aloe and vitamin E in them.

An Internet search reveals that many doctors believe wiping after changing a pee diaper is unnecessary. Does this mean it’s always harmful to wipe a child after changing a pee-filled diaper? No. Every child’s skin and PH-balance is different. If your child is developing diaper rash, first pay attention to the diaper changing regimen, and see what changes need to be made.

Veterans and Caregivers

Posted by Jeanne Lowry on August 14, 2014 under Caregiver Corner | Be the First to Comment

Caregiving is difficult no matter your relationship to the charge or the reason why the person needs caregiving. But different challenges face each of those relationships and reasons. Veteran caregivers have a specific set of challenges, hardships and rewards.

One of the challenges is trying to understand the mountains of paperwork it can require for a veteran to get care. Of course, this can be a challenge for all caregivers, but as the news has shown over the last couple months, the VA system is a particularly rough road to travel these days. This trouble can be mitigated by keeping a close and organized watch on all paperwork related to the veterans care. But that still doesn’t mean that they’ll be able to get an appointment any faster than otherwise.

As for the hardships, there are many. Again this is true for other individuals with disabilities, but oftentimes veterans have problems that are not apparent on their body. PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) or a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) often don’t leave outside marks. This means that the veteran and their caregiver have to deal with outside people treating them like everything is fine, even when it isn’t. That can be a blessing, but also can mean having to explain more to strangers than one would like.

But being there for a veteran can be tremendously rewarding. As the parent, spouse or friend of a veteran, that person is taking part in an effort larger than themselves. They are part of what makes that veteran function every day and they should be thanked, just as veterans are thanked.

So thank you, from us here at TotalHomeCareSupplies.com, for your service as either a member of the armed forces or as a caregiver of one. We are grateful for you.