Mom is 85, and has severe dementia. Her bedtime routine includes a bowl of applesauce with her meds ground up and added to it, with a glass of water either before or after the applesauce. The meds include Famotidine for reflux, and risperidone and melatonin to help her sleep. When she is done with this I put the bed down flat so I can help her turn on her side for sleeping and then I put the head of the bed back up a few inches to help prevent any reflux from occurring. One time recently I put the bed down right after she finished, and her food came back up and then went down the wrong way and she began hacking and coughing and turning purple. Fortunately she did not aspirate any of it, but it was traumatic for her and for me and I know we may not be so lucky next time.
So, now I put the bed down part way for a while to give her food time to settle before putting it all the way down flat, but I don't know how long I should wait. And if she falls asleep while shes waiting, and I wake her up to reposition her on her side (she doesn't sleep very well on her back), sometimes she can't go back to sleep when I'm done.
Any ideas? Thanks!
I think an hour would be best practice. My dad is
94 & after supper we put him in his motorized chair to
Elevate his feet & leave him sitting up for 30-45 mins. If your Mom needs an hour, I wonder if you could give her the meds just a bit earlier.... So that she might have sufficient time before she gets tired. Also, applesauce is supposed to be great to soothe reflux...
Maybe you could mix a little banana with it.. To add a
Little thickness to the sauce. That may aid in her digestion, unless she has problems with bananas. Blessings to you for helping your mom!!
With mom and now with dad, I usually don't change their pamper after they've eaten. If dad ate at 6pm, I give it 2 hours to change his pamper because of the constant turning. By the way, there's no need to put your mom's bed flat down when changing her. I have always had my parent's heads slightly elevated. The only times I've seen the bed flatten was when the govt caregivers were giving them a sponge bath.