Multilayering clothing

Harky

Registered User
Oct 13, 2021
126
0
Just joined this forum last week and already benefited from it. My wife APPEARED fine in front of people and family and found I was explaining what she was like at home. Someone told me it was called HOSTESS MODE. Googled it and found I'm not alone. Made things very clear and have shared it with family. BIG THANKS to that person. Think I've helped someone telling about the ROBO PET DOG we got her.

Her other big problem was multilayering of trousers and tops. I'd find her in tears unable to get a top on, she already had 3 tops on and 2 pairs of trousers. She would put clothes under her pillow and line up clothes on the floor beside the bed. Every week I'd remove 1 item of clothing from the pile, she really never noticed. Now all she has is a couple of t-shirts under the pillow and the clothes for the day beside the bed. Very occasionally, she'll ask where her clothes are. I just tell her that's them on the floor.

Just thought I'd share this as I'm sure many have the same issues.
 

Grannie G

Volunteer Moderator
Apr 3, 2006
81,447
0
Kent
Hello @Harky.

My husband was the same with his shoes. He lined up every pair of shoes he had by his side of the bed. They were a trip hazard but as quickly as I replaced them in his wardrobe, they were on the floor by the side of the bed again.

I think my husband had the same worry your wife has. Where were his shoes? He was a wanderer and went walkabout frequently. I think it is why his shoes were so important.
 

Harky

Registered User
Oct 13, 2021
126
0
Hello @Harky.

My husband was the same with his shoes. He lined up every pair of shoes he had by his side of the bed. They were a trip hazard but as quickly as I replaced them in his wardrobe, they were on the floor by the side of the bed again.

I think my husband had the same worry your wife has. Where were his shoes? He was a wanderer and went walkabout frequently. I think it is why his shoes were so important.
Fortunately, my wife thinks there's a woman in one of our spare bedrooms and is frightened to go in so that's where they are. Her son apparently stays in the other spare room where her other clothes are so I can quite safely put them in there.
 

canary

Registered User
Feb 25, 2014
25,018
0
South coast
Oh yes, multilayered clothing!
The first time I became aware of this with mum was when she moved to a care home and I visited her for the first time. Mum was very indignant because the carers wanted to help her dress. She had a big rant, telling me that she was perfectly capable of dressing herself and didnt need any help. Less than two minutes later she went to the loo and when she came back she was very puzzled and told me that was wearing 3 pairs of pants! It was hard to stifle my laughter.......
On another occasion I found her wearing seven (yes, seven) T-shirts and complaining that she was hot and another time I arrived to be told by the carers that mum wouldnt let them help her and was getting into problems. They were not wrong - I found mum and discovered that she was wearing 4 pairs of pants, had put her pyjama bottoms back on over them, had two more pairs of pants on over that, a pair of trousers on the top and was struggling to put yet another pair of pants on over the lot ?

Its a sequencing problem. They are worried about forgetting something, so they repeat actions over again, or they leave steps out, or they get confused about what they should be wearing and put stuff they have just taken off back on again. If you are around when they are getting dressed it helps to lay out what they need and hand them items in the right order as they need them.
 

Claire250

Registered User
Sep 25, 2021
22
0
Mum has started multilayering her tops, I thought it was because she gets cold. She is so tiny it's hard to find stuff to fit her and now she has taken to wearing three tops at once keeping things clean is getting more hard.
 

Jessy82

Registered User
Mar 15, 2021
122
0
Mum was the same , she would wear multiple jumpers and trousers, then her dressing gown over the top (or underneath) I would do her laundry, put in on the airer or radiators, when I came back later, she would have all the damp clothes on. Sometimes she would have knickers over the trousers, which was funny, but not so funny when she had weed in the 4 pairs of trousers all at once .
 

Harky

Registered User
Oct 13, 2021
126
0
Mum was the same , she would wear multiple jumpers and trousers, then her dressing gown over the top (or underneath) I would do her laundry, put in on the airer or radiators, when I came back later, she would have all the damp clothes on. Sometimes she would have knickers over the trousers, which was funny, but not so funny when she had weed in the 4 pairs of trousers all at once .
Yes, knickers over trousers like a superhero. Or coming out of bathroom with trousers removed and not aware. I've overcome these issues as due to problems in toilet coming out damp, I've now got her accepting that I go in with her although she still tries to go herself without telling me. I'm constantly listening to what she's up to when out of the room. To make things easier for us (me) I'm basically with her 24/7. Left on her own even for 15mins she gets up to all sorts. Last time I went for a short 15mins walk months ago, came home and said she'd made something to eat, didn't like it so put it in fridge for me. She'd opened up a microwaveable sponge pudding, put it uncooked in a plate with some mayonnaise, cold meat and had tried to open a packet of bacon from the freezer .
 

northumbrian_k

Volunteer Host
Mar 2, 2017
4,415
0
Newcastle
All of this sounds very familiar. My wife flew to USA with knickers on the outside and several more pairs underneath her trousers. Her shoes stopped fitting her when she started wearing 5 pairs of socks. She has absolutely no recognition of whether she is wearing things or not. Hence she would sometimes put her coat on with nothing underneath and say she was ready to go out. At other times she would put on yet another dress jacket or something fresh and still wet from the washing. Scarves and sometimes hats were worn in multiples. Going to bed fully dressed became the norm. All of this has been largely controlled if not eradicated with 24 hour supervision in her care home.
 

Harky

Registered User
Oct 13, 2021
126
0
All of this sounds very familiar. My wife flew to USA with knickers on the outside and several more pairs underneath her trousers. Her shoes stopped fitting her when she started wearing 5 pairs of socks. She has absolutely no recognition of whether she is wearing things or not. Hence she would sometimes put her coat on with nothing underneath and say she was ready to go out. At other times she would put on yet another dress jacket or something fresh and still wet from the washing. Scarves and sometimes hats were worn in multiples. Going to bed fully dressed became the norm. All of this has been largely controlled if not eradicated with 24 hour supervision in her care home.
I've got to spend ages trying to persuade her to change at bedtime. Keeps asking why. And yes, 24hr supervision makes a huge difference for me but unsure if my wife would agree. Don't even think she's away of the 24/7 attention I give her. Unsure if I'm doing the right thing, I've never made her aware she has dementia as I don't see it as any benefit to her.
 

Jaded'n'faded

Registered User
Jan 23, 2019
5,259
0
High Peak
My mother was also a multi-knicker wearer. Usually there would be a large incontinence pad kept snuggly against her tummy between pairs 2 and 3...

Sadly it shows the deterioration of the brain quite well. First part to go is the decision making, deciding which clothes to wear, because there are multiple factors to consider - weather, occasion, inside or out, what's currently in the wash, will I need an extra cardi? etc. So outfits become increasingly random.

Next is actually putting the clothes on - what order, how many layers, etc. I think part of this skill remains for quite a while because getting dressed is something we've all done since childhood and it's almost automatic. Putting on a pair of knickers doesn't require much thought but figuring out what comes next is much harder - maybe best to put on knickers again 'cos you know that's right.... But awareness of clean/dirty/wet/dry quickly goes.

Finally it seems to become just, 'Clothes...something about clothes...' but no idea what they are, what to do with them, whether or not they are wearing them.

It really is heartbreaking to watch the progression of dementia. (But I still find multi-knickers funny - sorry!)
 

lollyc

Registered User
Sep 9, 2020
947
0
My friend has the opposite problem - her mother appeared at the door wearing only a cardigan - and nothing else! She really couldn't see what the fuss was about. Luckily it was only her family visiting, rather than the postman or similar. Luckily my Mum isn't mobile, so I can control what she wears! (or doesn't wear.)
 

Valenca

New member
Aug 26, 2019
6
0
My husband would put on more and more clothes, one day he had on three pairs of jogging trousers and two pairs of shorts, then he would wee them all. As well he was wearing eleven shirts and jumpers. So I took all of the clothes out of his room, I keep them in the laundry room so I can give them to him one at a time. Also I realised that telling him to take off his clothes was too much to take in, so I have to stay with him and do one thing at a time, first his shoes, which I take away or he will put them back on, then his trousers, same thing, etc., and I bring what he needs to put on one at a time. Otherwise he would put the dirty clothes back on and get them all mixed up. At least it has cut down on my laundry and ended all the frustration for us both.
 

ludford

Registered User
Sep 18, 2018
12
0
Yes, knickers over trousers like a superhero. Or coming out of bathroom with trousers removed and not aware. I've overcome these issues as due to problems in toilet coming out damp, I've now got her accepting that I go in with her although she still tries to go herself without telling me. I'm constantly listening to what she's up to when out of the room. To make things easier for us (me) I'm basically with her 24/7. Left on her own even for 15mins she gets up to all sorts. Last time I went for a short 15mins walk months ago, came home and said she'd made something to eat, didn't like it so put it in fridge for me. She'd opened up a microwaveable sponge pudding, put it uncooked in a plate with some mayonnaise, cold meat and had tried to open a packet of bacon from the freezer .
My wife brought a soup dish wit coleslaw in the bottom 10 of my small home grown tomatoes and 7 Werthers toffees spaced out on top
 

Harky

Registered User
Oct 13, 2021
126
0
Hello @Harky.

My husband was the same with his shoes. He lined up every pair of shoes he had by his side of the bed. They were a trip hazard but as quickly as I replaced them in his wardrobe, they were on the floor by the side of the bed again.

I think my husband had the same worry your wife has. Where were his shoes? He was a wanderer and went walkabout frequently. I think it is why his shoes were so important.
Just bought my wife a new pair of white trainers. Think they brought her in mind of not too recently when she and a friend would walk a minimum of 10miles a day 5 days a week. It's all she wears now and when we remove them, she puts them in a shopping bag and hides it behind the bedside cabinet with a pillow in front of it just incase this imaginary woman going about the house takes them.