Comfortable Clothing

[Mal.]

Lynne, my wife suffers from MND and has very weakened muscles, she is therefore confined to a chair or wheelchair.
The idea of trying to struggle to put a pair of tights on her was just a task beyond me. She agreed with me that wearing trousers would be better. This was fine for a while but a month or so ago she started to complain that the waistband on trousers was uncomforable and seemed to cut into her. Also trousers seemed to ride up after a while and cut into her around the crotch area.
While shopping at our local supermarket I spotted some track suits/leisure suits or whatever it is they call them these days. She agreed with my suggestion to try them.
Bingo! She finds them much more comfortable, the wider waistband does not cut in and the softer material doesn't seem to cut in around the crotch. They come in various colours so tops and bottoms can be mixed and matched to give a different "look". Plus as a bonus: After washing, I finish drying them off in the tumble dryer so they don't need ironing. It's cut down on the amount of ironing I do by a huge amount.

[daylily]

Hi mal,
My hubby has been wearing the same sort of trousers since his stroke as he cannot get to the loo fast enough with 'proper' pants or jeans. I hang them up after washing
and they are ready to wear the day after.
I also keep a spare pair in the car in case of 'accidents.'

It's all a learning curve isn't it?
God bless.

[Myrtle]

My oh is either bed or wheelchair and he's been wearing them for years. He wasn't keen in the first place, but 'real' trousers were such a performance and he didn't stay comfortable in them.
Our daughter got married last year and presented us with a 3 piece suit and dress shirt for him to wear, looked at my face, grinned and said 'it would be nice, but as long as he's there I don't care what he wears'.
The jacket was a piece too far, but the weather was glorious anyway

Nearly forgot, snugglers (fleece blanket with sleeves) are brilliant too when it gets a bit chilly in the evenings, easy to put on someone in a wheelchair and leaves the arms free.

[bowlingbun]

I've had two knee replacements, recovered very well, mobility 90% but it is hugely difficult to put tights on, so it's definitely trousers this winter - I have long legs and always think I look better in trousers anyhow. Mum is severely disabled, she always wears track suit bottoms now, for similar reasons. Marks and Spencer do a wide variety now, so obviously popular. The also do a range of trousers with Lycra, which I wear. Whilst my knee replacement scar is still healing, my usual slimmer fit jeans get uncomfortable quite quickly. I had a kidney removed a few years ago and have a very impressive scar across my stomach, but it saved my life, so I can live with it! I find that buying trousers a size larger than you really need can make a huge difference to comfort around the waistline. Trinny and Susannah wouldn't approve, but who cares!? I've almost given up wearing ordinary woven blouses, there are so many pretty T shirt type tops available. I tend to buy a lot from Cotton Traders and Damart. They are so much easier to wear, wash and don't need ironing. Hope that helps.

[madeliaette]

Track pants are definitely a godsend. My Dad - aged 88 with a double stomach hernia - was TRYING to fit into normal trousers - but somedays his waistline was bigger than others, resulting in numerous cursings of belts, braces, and 'modern trousers sizes'. I persauded him to try track pants - and although at first he thought them 'cheap and common', he now wears them nearly every day. As I said at first, 'they go up-down with no fiddling around when you need to use the bottle/commode.'
Actually, I wear them every day myself, too....

[Jane:-)]

This doesn't quite fit with "comfortable clothing" but a tip non the less.

My OH has difficulty with fastenings and still determined to dress himself (thankfully) so I'm in the process of changing all the buttons on his shirts to velcro. It's time consuming as I'm hand sewing inch squares where the buttons have been (saves on cost instead of long strip down the whole length). The only problem I've found is the top button (not on the collar but next one down) gapes a little and shows the velcro, not a problem on black or dark shirts but is on pale colours as I only bought velcro in black, flesh and white.

Oh and I sew the button back on the top panel where the buttonholes would be.

Anyway, thought this might be a handy hint for someone else.

[flossie]

that's ingenious jane:-)