Skin Breakdown in the Aging Parent

Are you considering a change to your lifestyle? A lifestyle change that involves moving an aging parent into your home? If so, there are a few issues and concerns that every adult child should be familiar with before moving a parent into your home. With varying dependence and activity levels, caring for an aging parent can be not only rewarding but also challenging.

One such challenge for aging parents, especially when moving into a new home with an adult child, involves the development of skin disorders. Because skin care is a priority for aging adults, it is important to ensure your parent is well protected from the complications which may arise simply from the change in surrounding and resources.

Because a breakdown in skin is a major concern for aging parents, the first thing, as an adult child caregiver, you should do is to understand the risks and complications associated with specific diseases and disorders. While some diseases and disorders simply attribute to a skin disorder, others will render the aging parent immobile, resulting in the development of pressure sores and skin breakdown due to the parent’s lack of mobility.

Also of concern is the development of a skin irritation and breakdown due to the aging parent’s inability to properly assume personal hygiene. When skin is exposed to fecal matter and urine, over an extended period of time, the skin will become sore, irritated and begin to breakdown, creating greater potential for bacterial infections. This is of critical concern if your aging parent is suffering with diabetes or other immunosuppressive conditions.

To aide the aging parent in resolving skin disruption and disorders, encourage regular hygiene even if this means bathing your parent personally or hire a home health aide to handle this care for you. Also, because the parent’s skin is very fragile, often losing elasticity associated with aging, it is important to provide cushioning, especially in the bed they will be sleeping in.

As an added measure, taking personal care of the aging parent, by ensuring the parent is as mobile as possible, will be crucial to reducing the complications associated with pressure sores. If the parent is mobile, to some extent, encourage regular walks and movements, even if about the house, using a walker or cane. If the parent is not independently mobile, they will rely heavily upon you to move them about the house to ensure bed sores, also known as pressure sores, are alleviated. In fact, in this scenario, it may be necessary to set a schedule for rotation and movement and enlist the assistance of family and friends to aide in the movement of your parent when you are not able to do so.

Caring for an aging a parent is a challenging adventure but will lead to many rewards and blessings. To encourage a healthy and optimal living arrangement, working to reduce the complications associated with skin disorders is crucial to overall health. Using simple scheduling techniques, allowing access to proper hygiene and even enlisting the help of home health aides, friends and other family members, will alleviate some of the burden from you and allow you and your parent a pleasant living situation.