A Place for Mom's Family

Elderly Dehydration

Watching for signs of illness in a loved one can be challenging. Some illnesses show up quite clearly, while others have a more subtle effect on daily living. Dehydration, depending on the severity, sometimes creates only small telltale signs while having a big effect on the body, especially in the elderly.

Dehydration occurs when a person loses more water than they take in. It takes an adequate amount of fluid for the body to function properly; for example, to regulate body temperature through sweating, maintain blood pressure, and eliminate bodily waste. If severe enough, dehydration can lead to confusion, weakness, urinary tract infections, pneumonia, bedsores in bed-ridden patients, or even death. In general, a human can survive for only about four days without any fluids.

This article continues at Elderly Dehydration.

This is a great article. Thank you so much for writing it. My mother is a resident at a local nursing home. She was admitted to the hospital yesterday with extreme dehydration. My sister had went to see her Wednesday afternoon and mom was unresponsive. She was lying down in her bed when my sister arrived and the nurses told my sister that she had just eaten. Sis couldn't get her to respond and found it odd and mentioned it to a nurse. They began to investigate and found mom's feet were black and blue. The nurses started fluids at the nursing home around 6:00 p.m. that night, I don't know why they waited so long probably were waiting on the doctor to respond. I called around midnight to see how she was doing. They said that her color was better but she still wasn't responding. The next day my sister had her admitted to the hospital. Upon review in the emergency room they said that she was extremely dehydrated. Mom has Parkinsons and finds it difficult to communicate verbally. Please keep an eye on your loved ones in nursing facilities and ask if they have a hydration plan as the article states. I will be talking to the administration about weighing Mom everyday and setting up a hydration plan for her. She has had several UTI's over the past year and I didn't realize they could be related to dehydration. With fluids, Mom's feet have returned to a beautiful pink and hopefully we will see her fully recover. So thank you again for this article!

This article is incomplete, in that it says nothing about the role of heat in dehydration among the elderly.