If you’ve been trying to help your senior to avoid dehydration you might have been using a variety of different techniques. Sometimes you and their home care services aide have to get creative about the tips you’re trying to help your elderly family member to get past any resistance that she has to drinking more water.

Use a Hydration App or Other Reminders

Fun ways to remember to drink water can be really helpful. A wall chart or calendar where you and your senior track her water intake can help her to see how much water she’s getting. Something else to try might be a smartphone app that tracks water intake. There are a lot of really fun versions that gamify water intake, which can be tremendously motivating for your senior. Watching a virtual plant thrive as she drinks water every day can be so much fun.

Use Water Bottles with Goal Markers

Another way to track water and to gamify the situation is to use water bottles that have markers right on the side. You can find many that show how much water someone should drink by certain times of day, which helps your senior to gradually keep drinking water. You can also make one of these yourself with tape or permanent marker, assigning different values to each marker.

Infuse Water with Fruit

Plain water just is not appealing to a lot of people and if that describes your senior, she may not be interested in drinking any amount of water. Water bottles that allow you to infuse the water with fruits can be a great way to add just a little bit of flavor to water without adding a lot of extra chemicals or sugar. It can also be fun to play with different flavors.

Limit Caffeine and Alcohol

Something else that can help is to limit beverages that have alcohol or caffeine in them. That’s not to say that your senior has to give up these beverages completely, but they don’t help her to stay hydrated. In fact, both caffeine and alcohol have a diuretic effect, which can make dehydration worse overall.

Bringing in Home Care Services

If you’re not able to be there with your elderly family member, it might feel like you’re fighting a losing battle when it comes to helping her to stay hydrated. Bringing in home care services providers can be a perfect answer. They can offer companionship for your senior while also assisting her with staying hydrated during the day.

If you or a loved one are in need of Home Care Services in Northampton PA or the surrounding areas, contact the caring professionals at Extended Family Care of Allentown. Call today at (610) 200-6097.

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Stephen Sternbach

CEO at Extended Family Care Services

With over 35 years of experience, Stephen Sternbach has been the Chairman of the Board of Directors, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Extended Family Care Services since 1987. After the sale of the New York and New Jersey operations of Extended Family Care Services, Sternbach brought the company private where he remains President and CEO of this 40-million dollar company. With Sternbach at the helm, Extended Family Care Services employs more than 650 employees, in six offices throughout Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York.

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