Incontinence Pants

[mandyp]

Hi

Dad ran out of pads for Mum during the holidays and so he bought large disposable incontinence pants for Mum, he's found them brilliant as he's not getting a wet bed in the morning.

The Incontinence people do not supply the pants, they will only supply pads and he's finding them useless now as she floods them.

I wondered if anyone could recommend an online resource that I could buy them for him (as they're quite expensive and I know he won't be able to afford them), but if it's making his life easier then I will buy them for him.

So any help on where is best (and reasonable to buy them) would be great,

Thanks

 

[Winnie Kjaer]

Hi You can purchase them from Tena lady on line, but I would insist on getting them supplied. I had them for my mother and was told that you in general can have 3 pants per day or 5 pads. Personally I think the pads are better as long as you get the maxi pads. Very high absorbence, my husband can wear his up to 10 hours without feeling wet. Do you get Tena pads at the moment?
The new national system is that you need to ring up a minimum of 3 days prior to your scheduled delivery if you do not phone you do not get a delivery. Did your father forget to phone perhaps?
They are trying to save large amount of wastage and say it is working well. But hard for people living alone.

 

[susiesue]

We had the same problem with the pads - they are OK unless, like David, he still wanted to take them down in the middle of the night and go to the loo. We then found he had put them in twisted or whatever and they were useless.

I bought pants from Attends themselves online- very efficient and got the pull ups that were so much better.

Love

 

[Brymar]

Hi,

The Tena pads can be supplied by your local area health sevice however, a word of caution.

My Mary had the pants supplied and was having recurring UTIs.
When in hospital I noticed that they used the inco-sheet bed protectors. I enquired as to why they did,nt use the pads and was told that they channel fetal matter towards the waterworks and cause infection (UTI)

Of course these pads are not available on the NHS but have to be purchased. I have four washable inco-sheets from incontinencechoice.co.uk.

Hope this helps

 

[mowood]

Hi

We've just had the incontinence nurse out to assess my mum's need for pads.

She told me that mum would be allowed 4 pads a day and that is the maximum anyone is allowed. I was shocked as I'm already using between 7 and 8 a day. The nurse said that I should not change them each time my mum wees, but should put them back on her until they are full!! She is going to send me some higher absorbancy ones so that they will hold even more wee - I can hardly wait!!

At the moment I order pull-up pants from the same supplier as susie and I'll continue to do that and use the pads in between.

As for disposal. I thought there would be a special collection for used pads but I was told just to double bag them and put them in the ordinary bin.

Good luck

Maureen x

 

[stikwik]

my experience

in short (as i'm poorly) but finally a thread i think i can help with...

• incontinence assessment needs to have 'indepependence' mentioned as a buzz word (and the truth) as to why we need them to have pants and not pads - ours too said they don't normally issue pants but dementia is a whole different ball game and once they understood they OK'd it and we get supplied them free
• places online to buy in the meantime/in addition include: Boots (own make), Chemist Direct (do Tena plus Depend - can recommend both), Sainsburys (just noticed £5.17 for x12 when iwas shopping online today)

i agree they make life sooooo much easier so hope you get success for free ones, but understand you buying them yourself even if not for the freedom of movement

good luck!

nik

 

[connie]

Here is a link to a nationwide supplier of all types of incontinence products.

http://www.dryforlife.co.uk/

As a company I found them really helpful.

 

[Skye]

Not all authorities will supply pull-ups, mine wouldn't. I found them much more satisfactory than pads as long as John still used the toilet, he could manage the pants himself, whereas pads were hopeless.

I bought Boots own brand. If you join their health club, you get an automatic 10% off, plus they often do 3 for 2.

 

[Trying my best]

We tend to use the pull up pants, but put a pad inside them! That way you can just change the pads and (hopefully) the pants will catch any overspill. It sounds like it would work out much more expensive, but the pants are really just a back up and are usually dry all day and it's just the pads that need changing regularly.

Our area won't supply pants either - we were told that they are only available to people who are terminally ill in the last few weeks of life. We were also advised not to change them too often, which really shocked me. WE alwasy end up running out long before our next supply is due.

I have to admit that I Laughed when Mooby said 'She is going to send me some higher absorbancy ones so that they will hold even more wee - I can hardly wait!', I must confess that it made me giggle!

We have a 'nappy wrapper' type bin which helps re disposal. I too had expected that you'd have to dispose of them more carefully than that!i

 

[Winnie Kjaer]

I have to admit that I Laughed when Mooby said 'She is going to send me some higher absorbancy ones so that they will hold even more wee - I can hardly wait!', I must confess that it made me giggle!

Yes if this was not so sad it would be real funny. It is disgusting, whoever would put a pair of wetted pants or pad back on. Nobody in their right mind.(sorry you know what I mean) My husband wears a pad as well as a convene sheath at night just in case but never has an accident unless he is poorly. So the pad is dry but i WOULD NEVER DREAM OF PUTTING IT BACK ON AFTER HIS SHOWER. wOULD YOU WEAR THE SAME PAIR OF PANTS TWO DAYS RUNNING, PARTICULARLY NOT IF YOU HAD SOILED THEM. How these people think I do not know, ask them if they would like to wear it themselves.
Regarding the medical disposals as it is called you should have a yellow bag and keep all your pads separately wrapped of course, ours are collected weekly from the council who supply the bags which fit in a small ourdoor rubbish bin. Sometimes I get so cross when I read these issues, you should not have to struggle with any of this. The support should be totally automatic through your doctors referral.

 

[Trying my best]

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend anyone when I said that - I meant that it made me giggle in a 'how ridiculous' way. Of course we always change mum every time she is wet and the pants are changed regularly as well - more often than the distruct nurses recommended that we changed the pads!

 

[connie]

Regarding the medical disposals as it is called you should have a yellow bag and keep all your pads separately wrapped of course, ours are collected weekly from the council who supply the bags which fit in a small ourdoor rubbish bin.

Wish this were so in all areas Winnie. Once again it is a postcode lottery.

Lionel is assessed as needing 4 pads per day, via the incontinence service. Absolutely ridiculous of course. However I know the care home change him whenever it is necessary.

I am always happy to purchase extra supplies for him as required.
Just a fact of life I'm afraid.

 

[Lynne]

Please don't worry, TryingMyBest, we're pretty much all converts to the "if you didn't laugh sometimes, you'd cry all the time" school of thought.

There are some ridiculous situations presented by involvement with dementia (& things said about it, often by 'professionals' ).

 

[Skye]

We never had a disposal service either, we were told to put pads in the ordinary bin. Not very good for infection control!

TMB, please don't worry, we know what you meant. It's absolutely ridiculous to suggest pads shouldn't be changed when needed.

 

[Izzy]

I buy Tena pull up pants for mum and I think they're great for her. I haven't tried to see if the council has a disposal service - I never thought. We buy the pants as we were told she could only get pads free.

 

[jenniferpa]

Would not the rules for disposal be the same as that for disposable nappies? The thing is, of course, that animals and birds are always "performing" in the great outdoors so if there is a health issue, it's not just down to humans.

 

[maryw]

Hi

She told me that mum would be allowed 4 pads a day and that is the maximum anyone is allowed. I was shocked as I'm already using between 7 and 8 a day. The nurse said that I should not change them each time my mum wees, but should put them back on her until they are full!! She is going to send me some higher absorbancy ones so that they will hold even more wee - I can hardly wait!!


Maureen x

I had the same situation with my Mum. I bought extra pads from www.allanda.co.uk. As my Mum was unable to get extra funding for the extra pads she needed, I made sure these were put down as an additional expense when it was time for a review of her assessment of contribution towards the amount of money needed to purchase services under Direct Payments Scheme". At first they argued that the State paid for her incontinence cover, but then when I enclosed invoices they could see the cover was insufficient.

By the way I didn't really notice the difference in the higher absorbency ones!

 

[mandyp]

Thanks guys as always for all the suggestions.

Postcode lottery indeed! I have to say that as far as I'm concerned incontinence is yet another horrible layer to this disease and anything that can assist in making it easier to deal with should be supplied for free. I know that Dad's washing machine is on overdrive with Mum's accidents, she rarely goes to the toilet now and even if she does, Dad can't make her sit down, she just won't.

I know that Dad has had a dry bed and the pads leak badly most nights, he's had the really large ones and the ones with sides and they always leak.

In terms of UTI's she's getting them anyway as she is incontinent from both ends now, so I don't think it'll make a great deal of difference what he uses unfortunately.

If he can protect Mum, the bed, chair, flooring in the house etc better then it will take some of the pressure off him which will really help.

Thanks again

 

[mowood]

Thanks MaryW for the tip about charging the extra pads as additional expenses, I hadn't thought of that. As my mum is going to receive fully funded NHS continuing care at home, I had thought that all this sort of thing would be covered. I've a lot to learn!

I'm grateful to all the TP members for their guidance.

Love

Maureen x

 

[Sandy]

It really is surprising how little personal choice there is in this area - one of the most personal areas in terms of care.

Many carers have reported how personal care can be a trigger for aggressive behaviour at times. You would have thought that providing the best solution to reduce frustrations in that area would be a priority.

I wanted to look into this as we are not yet at this stage with my MIL (but it is probably not too far off) and I found this research paper by the Health Technology Assessment programme, a body I had never heard of:

The HTA programme is part of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). It produces independent research information about the effectiveness, costs and broader impact of healthcare treatments and tests for those who plan, provide or receive care in the NHS.

One finding of the research was:

For moderate / heavily incontinent adults both trial 2a and 2b found that disposable pull-ups were the most effective and acceptable for women

The recommendation was:

Our research showed that the performance and acceptability of designs varied between users and allowing them to choose combinations of designs for different circumstances within a budget may offer the best solution.

http://www.hta.ac.uk/news/newsitem131108.shtml

I wonder when that recommendation will be implemented by PCT's?

Take care,