My mother is 97 years old and has late-stage Alzheimer's. She can’t take care of herself and needs assistance with all her daily needs (can’t walk, talk, bathe or feed herself and is incontinent,) She gets upset and pulls back her hand when I try to cut her finger nails. Sometimes this results in an unintentional pinch to her finger which only exacerbates the situation. She won’t let me file them either. Does anyone have any tips on the best way to cut her nails?
Thanks!
I do this with my 5 year granddaughter who once got "pinched" with a nail clipper by the other grandma.
If I were doing this job (we're actually not allowed to cut nails, too much can go wrong) I'd start with a manicure, and possibly do my own first to show her what's happening. E.g. take a basin of warm water and let her soak her hands first, rest them on a fluffy towel, start with some nice hand cream and a little massage, and move gently on by stages. This will work better if she ever was the kind of person who went to salons or otherwise took the beauty business seriously.
But if someone just took your hand and set about cutting or filing your nails, you'd pull back too.
If she still won't let you, sanitizing hand wipes and a cotton bud under the nails are better than nothing.
Here's a thread on this very subject from 2015 you may find helpful, IDK. I did not read all the responses myself.
https://www.agingcare.com/questions/moms-wont-let-anyone-care-for-her-fingernails-187777.htm?orderby=recent
Good luck!
However, she likes to "tap tap tap" on the table impatiently.
She will pick at her scalp and her face and make sore places
I just sit down with clippers and go at it and she'll just whine and fuss, which I ignore. If she tries to pull her hand back, I just keep gently taking hold of her finger.
Then I hand her a fingernail file and tell her to smooth out her nails, which she will do.
She doesn't get to run the show.
I now have my own, and I got quite cross with DH for using them for years on himself (as well as in electronics), without telling me how useful they are. If you want to try, try on yourself first to get an idea of how close they cut, and be careful. In fact if I was cutting someone else’s nails, I would still have the basin of warm water, the nice soft towel, demonstrate on myself first, and probably just start with the nail that is being annoying. A good first try always helps!
I soak, I cut, I clean underneath and then we apply moisturizer. Sometimes I also apply sanitizer first. The key with anything I do for Mum is to make it spa like. Whether it’s her hair, shower or nails.
And there are some better clippers out there than the rest.
I find it strange that nails are not done in care facilities. Reason being my late brother who had a disability would often get gunk underneath his nails, then he’d scratch a sore and the matter would get into his blood stream and cause infection. Few times he was in hospital for that.
I know now if I didn’t keep mums nails short, there’d most likely be fecal matter at some point getting in her blood stream as she’s always had allergies/itchy skin/sores.
Try to get her in to a manicurist. She may be better behaved with a new/different person.
If it works out with your budget, it may be useful to have a CNA come in to shower her and take care of her nails. Their training in working with ALZ patients is helpful.
If that does not work then when she is asleep do a nail. Might take more than 1 day to do all her nails but they will eventually get done. Think of it as your Golden Gate Bridge. (I read once that they paint the bridge and when they start at one side by the time they get it all done it needs to be done again. Never ending....)
Here are a couple of videos giving you the basic idea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKT9YIVPREE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gLrH8mioCw
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