Feeding your aging adult can feel extremely awkward not just for you, but also for your elderly family member. How you move past the awkwardness is really important.

Home Care in Lafayette Hill PA: Ways to Make Feeding Your Senior Easier

Choose Foods that Are Easy for Her to Eat.

Some foods are likely to be more difficult for your senior to eat than others. Anything that is crunchy or crumbly might be uncomfortable for her, especially if you’re feeding it to her. Talk to your elderly family member about which textures and types of foods are easier for her to eat when you feed her. You might both want to experiment a bit with different foods and textures in order find the right combination.

Use a Bit of Distraction.

One mistake that family caregivers often make when they’re feeding their aging adult is to focus too much on offering the bite and making the entire situation more of a production. Actually, a little bit of distraction can work wonders. Try asking your senior a question or starting a conversation, all while holding the spoon or fork up to her mouth. The conversation will help her to feel less self-conscious about the fact that you’re feeding her and you’ll probably get farther along than you have in the past.

Ask for Tips from People with More Experience.

Talking to your senior’s doctor or nurse can help quite a bit in terms of getting advice about feeding her properly. You might also want to hire home care providers to help you and your elderly family member out a bit. They have experience with feeding aging adults and they can give you some hands-on examples of what works best.

Keep Practicing.

When a situation is awkward or uncomfortable, a normal human response can be to avoid that situation in some ways. You can’t really do that with your elderly family member, though. She still needs to eat and you need to become comfortable with helping her to eat. Keep practicing, even if both you and your elderly family member are feeling awkward about the situation. Learn to find the humor in learning the ropes with feeding another adult and keep on going.

Feeding your senior is a great time for you to interact with each other and to bond. It’s also an important way for your elderly family member to get the nutrition that she needs, so doing what you can to help ensure that it’s comfortable and easy for her to eat is very important.

If you or an aging loved one are considering home care in Lafayette Hill, PA, contact the caring professionals at Reliant At Home Care today (610) 674-6860.

Home Care in Lafayette Hill PA: Family Vacations Don’t Have to Be Stressful When You’re Caring for an Aging Parent

Now is often the time when families begin planning summer vacations. For those who may be caring for an elderly loved one, such as a parent, they may have questions about what they can actually do for their vacation.

Some people feel it’s important to skip those vacations.

Going away, whether it’s to the beach, amusement parks, or to some other destination far away might not feel possible now that this elderly loved one requires assistance. These family members don’t believe they can go away for even a day because this loved one might need help.

What’s going to happen if they have trouble getting out of bed or need assistance with something else and they are hundreds or even thousands of miles away?

That’s why home care support can be so valuable.

Hiring a home care aide, even if it’s only temporary, can be the solution to help families go on vacation without the stress and worry about an elderly individual who needs help. A professional and experienced home care aide can be a valuable asset, not just for the time that family caregiver is out of town.

These professional caregivers can give family members time off anytime of the year, once or twice a week, several times a day, and more. It all depends on the needs of the elderly individual and what the family caregiver has to accomplish.

Remember, you have to take care of yourself.

Many family caregivers ultimately deal with a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety. They may not feel stressed out at the beginning, but over time it will begin to take a toll on their life. They will eventually realize they are stopping by more frequently than they expected to, are having the phone ring several times during the day with requests from this elderly loved one who needs help, and may even give up exercise, eating healthy, or spending time with their spouse or friends.

For those families who are planning to take this elderly loved one along with them on vacation, they may be able to hire home care support at their vacation destination or even have a caregiver travel with them.

Since now is the time many families will begin planning their vacations, there’s no need to stress about what’s going to happen with that elderly parent, grandparent, or other loved one. Simply rely on home care support.

If you or an aging loved one are considering home care in Lafayette Hill, PA, contact the caring professionals at Reliant At Home Care today 610-200-6075.

Home Care in Lafayette Hill PA

Preparing your parent’s home for the beginning of a home care journey with a live-in care provider is not the same as preparing the home for any other type of care provider. This is because the care provider will be spending a considerable amount more time in the home than other types of care providers, and will be handling more of her own personal care task and activities of daily living in your parent’s home. This means that it is essential you take the time to properly ready your loved one’s home so that the care provider is comfortable from the beginning and your parent can get the maximum benefit out of the relationship from the start.

Use these tips to help you prepare your parent’s home for the beginning of a home care journey with a live-in care provider:

• Establish boundaries. Are there areas of the home that you or your parent do not want the care provider going into? Does your parent have entertainment features of the home that the care provider might want to use? Does your parent have house rules that might apply to a care provider coming in for this type of care, such as not smoking or not having guests come to the house? Establish these boundaries ahead of time and make any modifications to the home that are necessary to reaffirm these boundaries. This might include adding locks to doors to off-limits rooms, or covering a pool that your parent does not want used.
• Establish sleeping quarters. This care provider will need her own space to sleep on the nights when she is in the home with your parent. This room should be private and used only for her sleeping. This means that you cannot expect her to sleep on a sofa or fold-out couch, or to share her sleeping area with a home office. This room should lock and have all of the amenities that she will need to be comfortable in the home, including multiple sets of bedding to ensure they are clean at all times.
• Establish other personal areas. The care provider will also need other areas of the home set aside for her for her use. This may be a shelf or section of the refrigerator in the kitchen where she can keep her personal food, or a place in the cabinet where she can keep her toiletries and other personal items. Ensure that your parent understands these are not for her use and that she is not to touch them.
• Establish personal time schedule. Even though the schedule is not exactly what a conventional job requires, this is still the care provider’s job, which means she has life outside of it. She should not be expected to be “on duty” from the moment that she wakes up in the morning until she goes to bed at night. Instead, there should be built in time in the morning and evening when she can shower, relax, and spend some time to herself unless there is an emergency.

If you or an aging loved one are considering home care in Lafayette Hill, PA, contact the caring professionals at Reliant At Home Care today 610-200-6075.