Both my mother and father have suffered severe bouts of diarrhea quite often. I am really tired of dealing with it, what do they need to change to stop this? I think it is dairy intolerance or something else food related, but they won't stop eating things with dairy. Please help!!
I become so frustrated because I have to clean up her and the mess! I tell her repeatedly to let me help as soon as she goes, but she will not. Her trying to be independent is one thing but having to clean up stool every day is becoming unbearable, not to mention unhealthy!
She has had every kind of test to determine why she gets diarrhea, there is no conclusion. She takes 1/2 Imodium daily but still has frequent & runny BM's.
This problem has been placing a terrible strain on out relationship. I love my Mother and will do anything I can to keep her out of a nursing facility but I don't know how to get her stop trying to "clean herself up". Any suggestions?
Ask the dr. about adding fiber to the diet and use something like benifiber to help thicken the stools may help. The benifiber is tasteless and can be put in their tea or coffee in the morning. comes in pre-measured packets or in a bottle of powder.
We stay away from imodium as I feel it starts a bad cycle of things.
My mother's bowel habits have been back and forth for years -- sometimes she says she is constipated (not going every day) and other times she has diarrhea. She is diabetic and eats sugar-free things. The sugar alcohols used to sweeten this things are some of the best laxatives known to mankind. I know I regret it if I even eat two pieces of sugar-free candy. I may as well have taken ExLax. Sorbitol and other alcohol sugars can certainly upset the tum.
Loose stools can be a sign of many things, gall stones, low amount of fiber intake, food allergies etc. It's important to find out the why before you can really treat.
You can use benefiber or Citrucel for added fiber, Toileting more frequently may help esp. if they are aware they have to go but unable to stop it. good luck
For cleanup, using good pantiliners (Always Long or Extra Long), several of them to get max coverage, can save a whole lot of time and effort and are easier and cheaper than diapers or pull-ups (not to mention more acceptable to people. Most women are familiar with them.).
My father got to the point where he NEVER would wash his hands, refused to bathe, would not wear clean clothes, did a horrible job of washing dishes, etc. He had chronic diarrhea and would hide soiled clothes and sheets from me.
He was very beligerant about me "being in his business" and telling him to wash or offering to help. Fast forward to being in NH,,,,,no diarrhea....hmmm.
Talking to the Dr is the first step and having any advised tests and proceedures. Attempt to control the diet. if it is definitely lactaid intolerence buy Lactaid free milk which is four times the price of regular. You can take lactaid pills but thats a lot more pills to take. Personally I like the chocolate almond milk. As noted with the supliments name brand and generic, read the labels care fully. if the Dr advices the Immodium pills be sure to take an adequate dose. Metamucil seems to work well by bulking up the stool and reducing the number of bathroom visits. there really isn't an easy answer it's jsut a fact of aging and be treated as such not hidden and scolded.
We discontinued the metformin and found that there was no change in her glucose levels. She didn't need the metformin at all -- just her two daily Levemir shots. That was good to get rid of the extra medication.
When she was handling her own medication, my mother would overdose on Metformin quite often. She would get up at night and take an extra one or two so she could snack on crackers. She started having gastric problems, feeling gassy and nauseous. We chased around to different doctors, even getting an MRI, with nothing but gas showing up. Then I counted her metformin pills. Goodness! She had been seriously overdosing on them. The symptoms she was having were exactly what would be expected. I was relieved and mad at the same time, since such a large part of my life (and also Medicare dollars) had been consumed by dealing with this self-induced problem.
lmccarthy, your mother looks a lot like mine. When I look at the picture, it looks like you're sitting with my mother. :)
Also to take note of is that if a person takes any time-released medications they may not be getting the full benefit of the medication. I would certainly ask the doctor.