As individuals begin to age and their health starts to deteriorate family members may see a dramatic change in hygiene habits. Things like changing their clothes on a regular basis, bathing, washing their hands, combing or fixing their hair or lack of make up for the ladies. When you ask about it, the answer you may receive is "oh, I just didn't feel like it today." If that answer seems odd to you, there may be something going on that the person is not sharing.

Eyesight worsening, arthritis acting up and/or physical pain in the body are possibly the beginning stages that memory impairment may be occurring. Often what happens is the person starts to rationalize their behavior or lack thereof, by making excuses in general terms, such as just didn't feel like, didn't have enough time, etc.

Bathing is often a behavior that memory impaired individuals will not do. They resist bathing or showering completely, often becoming angry or aggressive if you bring it up. This can be a combination of many reasons: they can forget how to do it, be ashamed to let anyone see them without clothes, not be able to see the depth of the water in the tub. Clear water against a white tub bottom and poor eyesight is a dangerous combination. If they can't see how deep, they won't get in the bathtub. Putting a color on the white bottom of the tub, like dark blue mat sometimes helps if it is an eyesight problem. Getting in and out of the tub physically can be a major problem for people so they stop doing it because it hurts and causes them pain.

Changing clothes often becomes an overwhelming experience for people as well. They will wear the same clothes for several days or wear only 3 outfits when they have a closet full of clothes to choose from. We need to remember the goal is to keep people clean and healthy. If we can get them to sponge bathe and wear clean clothes, it does not matter if it is one of the 3 outfits they always wear.