How to Help Your Loved One to Manage Incontinence Triggered by Exercise

By superadmin | December 29, 2016

Home Care Pittsford NY

Sometimes even just a little bit of exercise might trigger an episode of incontinence for your elderly loved one. If that’s the case, dealing with the problem head on is a much better answer than ignoring it or hoping it will just go away.

Talk to Her Doctor about It

The sooner that you can bring this issue up with your loved one’s doctor, the better. There may well be extenuating circumstances, such as medication or other health issues, that could be contributing. Once resolved, your loved one might not experience any further issues with incontinence while exercising. If she waits to talk to someone about it, though, the problem can go on for much longer than it should.

Measure Her Fluid Intake

If your loved one is drinking too much water or even too little water, these could both be contributing factors to incontinence during exercise. Your loved one shouldn’t drink a lot of water before or during exercise. Usually just one glass of water is plenty until after her workout. If you’re not sure whether your loved one is drinking enough water, mention it to her doctor.

Set up a Bathroom Schedule

One of the easiest ways to manage mild incontinence, and particularly incontinence that occurs during exercise, is to schedule bathroom breaks. Your loved one may want to make sure that she’s going to the bathroom at least every couple of hours as well as right before she begins exercising. If she’s engaging in particularly long workouts, she may want to break for a trip to the bathroom.

Don’t Avoid Exercising because of Incontinence Issues

Above all, it’s important that your loved one doesn’t start to avoid exercising because she’s concerned about incontinence. Incontinence products, such as pads and underwear, can help and the exercise can be just what she needs both to manage incontinence and her other health conditions. Help your loved one to stick with the exercise guidelines from her doctor, even if incontinence is a factor for her every day.

Your loved one’s senior home care providers may have some other tips that can help your loved one, too. They’ve got a lot of experience helping elderly loved ones with exactly these types of situations.

If you or an aging loved one are considering Home Care Services in Pittsford NY, contact the caring staff at Caring Hearts of Rochester today! Serving Rochester, Pittsford, Greece, Webster, Canandaigua, Fairport, Perinton, Penfield, Brighton, Henrietta and surrounding communities. Call 585-245-0134.