For those elderly whose self-care ability is low and who needs to lay down for a long period, underpad is undoubtedly an important continence product for them. Even though the elderly does wear diapers or continence pants, these products may not be able to prevent leakage completely. Especially during nighttime, when the caretakers are not present in helping the elderly to replace the diapers, the urine and excrement would leak easily. If the urine and excrement stain the bedding, the elderly’s family members would probably have to replace it with a new one. This would certainly increase the financial burden of the family significantly. In light of this, some retailers have offered underpad to solve this problem.
There is a great variety of underpad in the market. In fact, elderly may require different kinds of underpad according to his or her different needs. Generally speaking, users need to consider the following factors when they choose to buy underpad:
-
Disposable or reusable: if the elderly has serious incontinence, the caretakers should consider buying disposable underpad, in order to reduce the time for washing the bed sheets. Whereas for mild or moderate cases, the caretakers may opt for the reusable one, which is washable.
-
Coverage area: underpad has different sizes, and some can even be tailor-made by specialty stores. Of course, the coverage area of underpad is correlated with the incontinence level of the patient.
-
Material: underpad usually has three different layers. The first one is upper layer, which is made of hydrophilic material that has strong affinity with water. The middle layer is composed of virgin wood pulp and superabsorbent polymer (SAP), which is the key for preventing leakage. The last layer is the bottom layer, which is made of some waterproof plastic material. Therefore, one has to distinguish the upper layer and the bottom layer when he or she uses the underpad. If it is placed in the wrong side, then it cannot prevent leakage.
-
Breathable or non-breathable: the plastic-made bottom later can be further categorized into breathable and non-breathable one. If the skin of the elderly is sensitive, he or she should use the breathable layer, so as to reduce the stifling feeling.
For sure, underpad has not yet been popularized in Hong Kong. Thus, users can hardly find this kind of product in the supermarket. However, several specialty stores have already offered various kinds of underpad for elderly and caretakers. Talking about usage, the caretakers must pay special attention to hygiene when they replace the underpad. Besides, they ought to ask the elderly whether they are accustomed to sleeping on the underpad, and keep an eye on whether any pressure sores have emerged on the elderly’s body.
Other articles:
