What are the common sense of daily care for the elderly?

The three highest priority items, namely fall prevention, chronic disease monitoring, and emotional relief, should be focused on first. The rest of the diet, cleanliness, and work and rest adjustments can be flexibly adjusted based on the elderly's own physical condition and living habits. There is no need to rigidly follow the general standards on the Internet. Don’t believe it. Aunt Zhang, whom I met in the community before, is 72 years old. She usually climbs the fifth floor without gasping for breath. She always feels that her body bones are stronger than those of young people. Last winter, she stepped on a small plastic stool while drying the quilt on the balcony, and her foot slipped and fell directly on the tiles, causing her femoral neck to break. I had a broken bone and lay down for three months before getting off the ground. I had to use crutches even to walk on a flat road. My physical condition has completely deteriorated. It is not an exaggeration to say that the elderly are most afraid of falling. Usually, the floor mats at home should have non-slip bottoms, and the bathroom must be equipped with handrails. Don't save money just to look good.

When many family members first come into contact with nursing care, they always think that taking good care of their food, drink, and toilet is enough. Instead, they tend to overlook the small details of chronic disease monitoring. I met an Uncle Li who suffered from high blood pressure for more than 10 years. He always felt that "if he is not dizzy, his blood pressure is normal." He found it troublesome to check his blood pressure every day, so he secretly reduced his antihypertensive medication by half last month. During morning exercise, he fell dizzy and fell to the side of a park bench. When he was sent to the hospital, his systolic blood pressure soared to 180. Fortunately, he was sent to the hospital in time and nothing serious happened. In fact, chronic disease monitoring does not have to be done as a task. For example, an elderly person who is accustomed to morning exercise will measure blood pressure and blood sugar 10 minutes after getting up, when he has not eaten breakfast and has not been active. The data is more accurate than any other time.

Even more subtle and important than physical care is emotional care. Last year, there was a grandfather Wang who lived alone in our community. His children were working in other places. He paid a lot of money every month and hired an aunt to take care of his food and drink. However, the old man was still bored every day and did not talk. Later, when the aunt was cleaning up the garbage, she discovered that he had secretly thrown away his antihypertensive medicine, so she wanted to pretend to be sick so that his children could come back to see him. In fact, many times when an old man loses his temper, it is either because he is really ignorant or because no one has said a thoughtful word to him for too long. Even if he makes two 5-minute phone calls a week to talk about what he ate today and whether the flowers downstairs have bloomed, it is more effective than buying many expensive supplements.

Nowadays, there is a lot of quarrel on the Internet about "should the elderly take more high-protein supplements?" In fact, there is no standard answer. Nutrition doctors will recommend that elderly people with normal kidney function eat more high-quality proteins such as eggs, milk, and lean beef to delay muscle attenuation and reduce the risk of falls.； Nephrology doctors will repeatedly remind elderly people with chronic kidney disease to strictly control protein intake to avoid increasing the metabolic burden on the kidneys. Asking the doctor how to eat specifically with the elderly's recent physical examination report is more reliable than listening to what any blogger on the Internet says.

There are also some inconspicuous little details that you need to pay attention to. When buying shoes for the elderly, don’t buy shoes with extremely soft soles. They feel like stepping on cotton and can easily cause sprains. Shoes with slightly harder uppers and anti-slip soles are most suitable.； Don’t set the water temperature for bathing too high, around 40 degrees is just right. Many elderly people are afraid of the cold and like to turn on the water at 50 or 60 degrees. After bathing for a long time, the blood vessels will dilate and they will become dizzy and lack oxygen. ； When cutting your nails, don't cut too hard into the flesh. The elderly have weak immunity and may easily get paronychia if they are not careful. The pain will last for a long time. I have been doing community care for the elderly for almost 6 years. I have met a lot of elderly people. The biggest feeling is that nursing is never a matter of ticking off a list. Squatting down more and listening to the elderly people's own thoughts and adjusting according to his rhythm are more effective than common sense.