My mother is 91-years-old. She has vascular dementia. She lives with me and I take care of her full time. She's still able to walk, use the washroom and eat on her own although I prepare food for her and when it's time for bathing I will help her. The one thing she does that annoys me to no avail is constantly change her clothes because she thinks they're wet even though they're 100% dry. She'll go through 16 or 17 different shirts/t-shirts/pants etc. each day. I've explained to her many times over that when she had her stroke, parts of her brain cells were destroyed and that's why she can't tell the difference between wet and dry. I handed her a Kleenex and told her to squeeze really hard on her clothes with the Kleenex and then to look at the Kleenex so that she could see that her clothes were actually dry. She does this occasionally but then says the Kleenex is wet even though it's completely dry. I'm at my wit's end because she keeps changing her clothes and putting them in the laundry for me to wash because she thinks they're wet. She's not on any medication and other than this crazy obsession thinking that she's always wet I have no complaints. However, I'm slowly starting to lose my sanity over this wet stuff because she'll tell me hundreds of times a day that she's wet, it takes everything for me to keep my composure and not freak out over it, is there any suggestions that anyone has to help get her mind off of this wet obsession?
5 Answers
Helpful Newest
First Oldest
First
You'll have to be sneaky. Sneak the "wet" clothes back into her drawer, let her change as much as she likes. Maybe you should buy her outfits exactly alike and encourage her to wear only those clothes. Like matching gray sweatshirts and pants from Walmart. Seven tops, seven pants, keep secretly rotating them, mom's happy and you're better off too. Seems like pretty comfortable outfit to me.
ADVERTISEMENT
As with ALL obsessions, this is unlikely to be changed by anything you can do, and will either spontaneously change, or will not.
Simply fold up the clean clothes and pretend you washed and dried them, and let her change. It's good exercise unless she stands like a stork (one legged) to pull on pants.
Best of luck to you.
Maybe try a blow dryer on her clothed body for a short time when she complains of her clothes being wet. And some powder on her skin. And a sweater bc perhaps she's feeling cold.
Best of luck to you.
Reasoning with a person with dementia is an exercise in futility.