The other day I went to Mom's (independent care, mild Dementia, Narcissistic) and she opened her closet (packed with clothes) and said I have nothing to wear. She finds fault with each article of clothing. She wants me to "drop her off" at the mall which I refuse to do. NOT SAFE. She buys beautiful tops and over and over says "I have nothing to wear. That top is not "me" anymore." So far, I just listen to her. I try to pick out 2 or 3 outfits for her before I leave. (I visit twice a week - she's well cared for - bather, nurse's aide, etc.) I just don't know what the right thing to do in this situation. I will call her doctor, however also wanted to know if anyone had ever heard of this before. Another factor, which could very well be at play, is she's had bladder infection after bladder infection this year. So it could be this behavior is temporarily appearing because of the bladder problem. The doctor just put her on another medication for the bladder problem because on Friday her culture came back positive again. Poor Mom. I want to help her however I don't think it's proper to just endlessly buy clothes because she says she has "nothing to wear". I also wondered if this was a social anxiety issue. Having nothing to wear means you can't participate in social activities. Thank you so much for your comments. I am new to this site and appreciate your advice.
I know it can be tough to keep up with you and your mom. I have been taking care of my mom for going on six years at my home. She goes to day care every day while I work. My mom needs assitance in every manner. I make her drinks and send them to day care so I know how much she is drinking and that a good portion of her fluid intake is water. No more UTIs. I also started with cranberry pills for an extra measure against the UTIs. Good luck and god bless!
My mom went from her home of 50+ years to IL for a couple of years and now is in NH. I left about 60% of her wardrobe in her house when she moved into IL because I flat ran out of time to shove crap into boxes or drawers when the movers came.....But this had ended up being most fortunate as now that she is in a NH her once lovely wardrobe has been trashed. NH laundry is super hot and they all use big commercial systems which is rough beyond rough on anything that is not a good heavy duty fabric. So I;ve been able to just toss stuff as it gets too worn to wear and replace it from the stuff from storage. This is good as she recognizes items and knows it's hers. Oh and I should have used some of her spend down $ on inexpensive simple unfussy wardrobe as stuff just walks in the NH. My mom just loves those hideous SAS shoes and they have to get replaced pretty often as 1 is always MIA.
As far as the clothes are concerned that seems to have been answered except in the case of someone wearing the same clothes, my advise would be to match up the favorite clothes then keep swapping them out for laundry. Buy them used if possible but if new wash well before introducing them so they don;t appear different