Tips
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If your parent has dementia and can’t remember that he should avoid certain foods, make copies of a note to hand to the server when you dine out. The note should explain the situation and instruct the server to say the restaurant is out of the items your parent can't eat.
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If your parent with moderate dementia eats only a few bites of food, claiming he’s full, try offering the same dish again a few minutes later. You can repeat this several times until you think he's had enough to eat.
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If your parent with dementia stops up the plumbing with toilet paper, remove the roll and put out smaller amounts near the toilet.
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If your parent suffers from painful arthritis, enroll him in an aquatic exercise therapy class, which you can usually find through local hospitals or the Arthritis Foundation.
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If your parent has moderate Alzheimer's disease and doesn't put toilet tissue in the toilet, put a lined trash bin next to the toilet, where he can discard the used tissue.
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Being put on the spot to make a selection from the menu can make your parent feel flustered and pressured. To head this off, casually talk through the menu options with her before the waitress comes to take your order. Read aloud from the menu and compare notes with your parent until you get a sense...
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If your parent has Alzheimer's disease, get his attention before you start speaking to him -- and avoid startling him -- by gently touching him on the arm or hand as you say his name. Touch is a powerful communicator. Your parent will be better able to focus on what you're saying when he doesn't hav...
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Over the past decade, Medicare has been improving its preventive medicine coverage. But many people enrolled in Medicare Part B don't realize that their coverage now includes regular preventive screenings, including mammograms and pelvic exams. If your mother is enrolled in Part B, she's entitled to...
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About 55 percent of people with Medicare have signed up for a Part D prescription drug plan. Whether or not your parent is enrolled in one of these plans, it's a good idea to check with her each autumn to see what drugs she's taking and how different Part D plans would cover them. Why autumn? That's...
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Medicare Part A and Medicare Part B provide the same coverage for your parent wherever she goes in the United States. But that's not necessarily true of a Part C Medicare Advantage managed care plan. So if your parent is enrolled in a Medicare Advantage managed care plan and she regularly spends tim...
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If your mother is losing her hair from chemo treatments, and she wears a scarf or a turban instead of a wig from time to time, she may find that she struggles to make the head covering look "right" over her bare scalp. One tip for getting a more natural shape is to take a foam shoulder pad from an o...
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Checking blood sugar levels to keep type 2 diabetes under control is part of your parent's daily routine. But constantly pricking her finger can be a pain -- literally. Try these tricks to take the sting out of the stick. Find the right needle, known as a lancet, for your parent: Frail skin will lik...
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Measuring food is a necessary part of how your parent with type 2 diabetes manages her diet. But sometimes it's inconvenient -- or even impossible -- and your parent just has to wing it. When that happens, she (and you) can still keep track of portion size with this "handy" measuring equivalency cha...
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Many over-the-counter (OTC) medications, such as cough syrup, cold and flu remedies, and antacids, contain sugar and/or alcohol, which may create blood glucose control problems for your parent with type 2 diabetes. One dose of cough syrup probably isn't going to raise your parent's blood glucose to ...
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If your parents are moving to a smaller residence in a retirement community -- or need to downsize to make their current home more manageable -- help them organize a "trunk sale" party, suggests Kathy Pimpan of Total Estate Liquidation. Invite close friends and family to examine those items your par...
