Find Senior Care (City or Zip)
Join Now Log In
T
Tluther Posted January 2016

Help with incontinence - missing the toilet.

I looked through various questions and answers on what to do to help with elders/handicapped missing the toilet and so far the best I could come up with was towels around the toilet. I hit upon the solution of putting a trough of aluminum foil around the toilet and filling it with cat litter - the clumping kind. This works like a charm and is easy to clean because I can just scoop it up. The cat litter is also scented and cuts down dramatically on the urine smell.

irishles Feb 2016
My husband is also incontinent. The times that he realizes he needs to pee I just drop his pants & he uses the hand held urinal. Of course this is when we are alone at home! When we're away from home, I have to go in with him & make sure he's okay.

Tluther Jan 2016
Unfortunately, he is too large to sit and pee. Also being unable to see very well would make it likely he would pee in front of the toilet if he even could fit to pee.

ADVERTISEMENT


Kimber166 Jan 2016
My stepmom did the same thing - insist my dad sit down to use the toilet - it really cut down the mess. She also has him clean up his own accidents (he is frequently incontinent - both kinds) and now he wears depends all of the time. Before she started making him clean up - he would deliberately have accidents so she could not leave him with a "babysitter" so she could get a break. His cleaning up his messes and being able to get up unassisted are her conditions for keeping him at home and otherwise caring for him 7x24.

freqflyer Jan 2016
Great idea about the cat litter... but here is an idea that is even better, have him sit down to use the toilet.

Of course he might gripe that is only for women to do, like it would be an insult... [sigh]. I overheard in my office two fellows who were in their early 40's, former college basketball players and weekend players saying that sitting down works best for them, and they saw nothing wrong with doing that.

If sitting down doesn't work, and he's able to help with the cleaning, hand him a bottle of cleaner and some paper towels and have him clean up his own mess. My 90+ year old Mom did that with my Dad when he refused to wear Depends and was messing up the carpets. Before you knew it, Depends was on their grocery order.

Tluther Jan 2016
He tends to hit the side and back area of the floor around the toilet so the foil is in that area and so far he steps on the toilet rug in front and has not stepped on the foil. This idea is a godsend to us since it take away the unpleasant smell and mess.

JessieBelle Jan 2016
This sounds like a much better idea than towels, since towels would be a bad fall risk. Does the person you care for ever step on the aluminum foil?

ADVERTISEMENT

Ask a Question

Subscribe to
Our Newsletter