Four Low-conflict Ways to Increase Your Senior’s Fluid Intake

One of the battles you may not be enjoying right now is convincing your senior to get more water every day. It’s a good idea to double check with her doctor and make sure how much water your senior should be drinking. From there, you can try some of these ideas.

Keep Water Right There with Her

Home Care Deer Park, WA: Increasing Fluid Intake

One of the easiest and lowest conflict ways to convince your senior to drink more water is to make it as available to her as possible. Keep glasses or small bottles of water close to your senior at all times. Model sipping water repeatedly through the day, too. Sometimes watching someone else drink will remind your senior that she should be sipping some water, too.

Switch Things Up

Plain water is sometimes unappealing to people. If that’s the case for your elderly family member, try some other ideas. Try warm drinks or icy cold drinks instead of room temperature beverages. If she doesn’t like lemon or lime in her water, try switching to something like herbal tea or a savory option, like bone broth. There are a lot of ways to add water that don’t all involve boring options.

Gamify Hydration

Something else to consider is that you can play a game with hydration. “Racing” your senior to the bottoms of your bottles of water by noon is one way to do it. Another option is to see who can drink the most ounces of water by a certain point. Or you can collect stars or check marks for each day that your senior hits her hydration goals and if she collects a certain number of check marks or stars, she gets to pick a reward of some kind. Games can get her out of her head about what she hates about drinking more water.

Plan Menus with Hydrating Foods

Fruits and vegetables that are high in water content also need to make a greater appearance in your senior’s meal plans. There’s more to hydration than just drinking water. Look for healthy options that your senior loves eating already and then add them into the menu rotation a little more often.

If you and your senior are still having a tough time seeing eye to eye about water intake, you might want to see what home care providers can do. Sometimes hearing from someone else that some water would be a good idea can be just the thing.

If you or an aging loved-one is considering home care in Deer Park, WA please contact the caring staff at Angel Senior Care today at (509) 326-4357.