How to keep the elderly hydrated

So it is hotting up and your main concern is ensuring that your residents are well hydrated but getting your residents to drink water is difficult at the best of times. We have rounded up a few care home activity ideas to suggest to your activity coordinator to try and encourage your residents to up their fluid intake this summer.

Make a Fruit Tray

Why not evoke memories of summers spent fruit picking and cut and chop soft fruits (choose ones with particularly high water content) and put together your own fruit tray. Your residents can pick at it and enjoy eating and smelling the fresh fruits whilst getting a little extra hydration at the same time.

Red Lolly, Yellow Lolly lets have an ice lolly

On those hot days there is nothing better than a nice cold ice lolly. You could of course encourage your residents to make the ice lollies with the ice lolly moulds readily available in most supermarkets perhaps if your residents have been involved in the process of making of the ice lollies they will be more likely to eat one when they are ready. Also you could choose flavours different to the usual cordial options available to make it more enticing for your residents to want to eat one, a refreshing cloudy lemonade would be our choice!

Make an English Country Garden

Some of your residents may choose not to go outside and enjoy the sunshine despite your best efforts. Why not give your residents the opportunity to make their own indoor garden that can be kept inside. Even though the hydration will be minimal for your residents the initial watering of the seeds could at least get your residents hands wet and cool them down. Some of your residents may even enjoy the responsibility of watering the gardens regularly encouraging them to get up and out of their seat keeping them active.

Shaken not stirred

Whatever your residents chosen accompanied soundtrack whether that be Cococobana or Chica chica boom chic, make having a drink a celebration with a mocktail making experience. You could buy lots of different fruit juices or simply have crushed ice, water and fruit segments and encourage your residents to make their own mocktail.

This activity as well as providing another opportunity for your residents to hydrate could encourage your residents to reminisce of holidays gone buy as they shake there own mocktails and enjoy drinking out of a fancy cold cup complete with a straw and an umbrella whilst listening to music of summer holidays gone by.

Time for tea

Why not encourage your residents to participate in a tea tasting afternoon? You could have a selection of hot or iced herbal teas for your residents to try. Herbal teas are a great choice because they do not contain caffeine, which means that they will not dehydrate your residents. According to research hot drinks can infact cool you down, “If you drink a hot drink, it does result in a lower amount of heat stored inside your body, provided the additional sweat that’s produced when you drink the hot drink can evaporate,” researcher Ollie Jay told Smithsonian .

Oh and of course it wouldn’t be afternoon tea without a slice of cake (or two) so why not ask your chef to prepare a nice summer fruits sponge pudding or cake.

Whilst we have suggested a few ideas in how to keep your residents hydrated please be mindful of managing your resident’s dietary requirements and medical conditions, such as heart failure and kidney or liver disease, as they may require intentional restrictions of fluid intake. So some of the suggested activities might not be suitable for all but we hope it has provided you with some inspiration!

We are off to cool down and make some ice lollies to help keep us cool after all our dancing!

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