I am a home health aide and work for a 90 year old man with Alzheimer's who has had two surgeries in the past month (prostrate surgery). The doctor has asked that he drink at least five full glasses of water a day to help flush his body out to to recover from the surgery. Since I am his home health aide, this is primarily my responsibility and it is proving to be very challenging.
The main problem with this is that he thinks he has already drank enough when he hasn't. I have tried arguing with him about this but it makes things worse. I have tried reminding him what his doctor has said about drinking water and this doesn't work either. Understandably, his daughter is starting to get upset with me because I cannot get him to drink. I just don't know what to do. I am afraid his health will get worse from this or that I will lose a job that I love. Please help! Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I also give grandpa fruit juice - apple juice, fruit & vegetable juice (V8), smoothies. I noticed that when I serve drink with a straw, he drinks more. Add more water to the drinks so it's not 2 sweet.
Hope this helps!
If his daughter is critical, I'd ask her for suggestions. I bet she couldn't get him to drink either.