The Best Skin Care Tips For Seniors
Skin care is about more than just beauty for seniors. November is National Healthy Skin Month and now is a great time to learn more about how to help your senior loved one keep their skin healthy as they age. Seniors are prone to dry and flaky skin. Medications, health conditions, dehydration, and other factors all contribute to dry skin in seniors. But if dry skin isn’t managed it can become serious. If the skin becomes dry and starts to crack seniors may develop infections or other problems. If you are not able to spend time with your senior loved one every day and your senior parent has a home care provider make sure that you talk with their home care provider to make sure they keep an eye out for any developing redness, dryness, or flaking skin on your senior parent. You can also share these senior skin care tips with your senior loved one and their home care provider:
Stay Hydrated
Staying hydrated is an important part of keeping skin healthy. Seniors have a tendency to be dehydrated and often need to reminded and encouraged to continually drink water throughout the day. If your senior loved one has a home care provider ask them to offer your senior loved one water throughout the day and encourage them to drink more.
Use Moisturizers For Aging Skin
When choosing moisturizers look for moisturizers and lotions that are designed for aging skin. These creams and lotions are often thicker and more dense so that they offer more hydration to the skin. You can also look for medicated lotions that are created for people who have dry skin due to medical conditions. Heavy duty moisturizers designed for the needs of older adults and people who have chronic medical conditions like diabetes will do a better job hydrating senior skin.
Moisturize and Cover at Night
Some people can’t stand to wear socks, gloves, or long sleeves to sleep in. But if your senior parent doesn’t mind wearing them a great way to help moisturize skin is to apply lotion to areas like the feet, hands, and arms and then cover them with socks, thin cotton gloves, or long sleeves just before your senior loved one goes to bed. Because they are covered the lotion on those areas of the body will stay put and hydrate the skin throughout the night.
Protect Skin From the Sun
Sun protection is very important for seniors all year long. As people get older their skin starts to thin out making it very susceptible to damage from UV rays. Seniors should always wear a high quality sunscreen if they are going outside, even if they are just going outside for a little while. It’s also a good idea for seniors to wear sunglasses and some type of sun hat if they are going out in the sun. Even in the winter the sun can cause damage so no matter what season it is seniors should always protect themselves from the sun in order to keep their skin healthy.
If you or an aging loved-one is considering home care in St. Charles, MO please contact the caring staff at Autumn Home Care, LLC today at 636-448-9347.
Sources:
https://www.todaysgeriatricmedicine.com/archive/091712p18.shtml
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/skin-care-and-aging
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