My mom has diarrhea often & I have cleaned from carpet on numerous occasions. She refuses to wear pull-ups & then tries to make it to bathroom but of course she doesn’t & diarrhea goes everywhere. I’m getting frustrated, please help! How can I get her to put pull-ups on? I know I can’t force & I have tried everything I can think of. Any & all suggestions welcomed.
something in her diet may be causing it, for example many elders develop an intolerance to dairy
try giving her a probiotic capsule, or if she will drink it you could try kombucha
adding a psyllium fiber supplement (Metamucil) is helpful for diarrhea as well as constipation, just be sure she drinks enough so you don't end up with the opposite problem
if this is more of a problem with runny bowel movements than the need to go often and unexpectedly it might help to get her to the bathroom on a schedule so that she hopefully goes in the toilet - every 2 hours, or at least shortly after meals.
She’d struggle all night to get them off so she could wet the bed or pull them down to go the floor.
I realize your mother might not have dementia. She’s fully aware of what she’s doing.
Could you just leave it there? She’d probably get pretty grossed out and talk to you about it. Then you could mention that she can clean it up and wouldn’t it be a great idea to wear something protective.
I would definitely have her doctor check her out because chronic diarrhea is not normal. Make sure she drinks enough water or electrolyte supplements to make up for the diarrhea.
If all else fails, tell her she’ll need to go to a facility where they can better care for her.
Good luck.
Take away all her underwear and replace them with pull ups. Get the pretty ones that are more underwear like, at least until she is accustomed to wearing them.
Hand her the mop and bucket and put her to work dealing with the consequences.
Tell her that you can't continue this way and if she doesn't do something to help you out you will have to look for alternate living arrangements. This sounds like a threat but in may cases dealing with incontinence is the tipping point that has caregivers looking at long term care, so it may also be the honest truth.