A Little Help With Comfort and Dressing

It’s amazing when you bring it up in conversation, just how many people struggle with the simple task of dressing and keeping comfortable. From pulling up socks to fastening buttons and pulling up zips, all can present their challenges, and not least, if you have any kind of weakness of grip or struggle to reach.

Here, we’ll take a look at some of the handy aids that can help us to get dressed easier and take away some of those frustrations that make life harder than it has to be.

As a wearer of compression stockings myself, I fully understand how hard it can be to get them over the feet and then pull them up over the lower legs, and it’s even harder if there’s any kind of muscle strain to the lower back or arms. But it doesn’t have to be a Herculean effort and nor should it be! There are aids out there, that can help to make the task a little bit easier, so your day doesn’t start on the wrong foot! (excuse the pun!).

The Rigid Sock & Stocking Helper is a great little device to help you get on your socks with ease and saving both time and effort.

It simply works by the sock or stocking being stretched over the metal frame, then, the foot placed into the sock using the handles to position correctly.

Keep it by the bed and it will make the task of putting on any awkward socks or support stockings much easier and comfortable for your back without having to strain to bend over.

Another good idea, for anyone who struggles with socks, and coming in at a very reasonable price at just over £5 is the Terry Cloth Sock Aid.

This aid helps reduce the effort required when putting on socks, making it perfect for those with limited mobility and arthritic hands. The terry cloth holds the sock firmly in place until it is comfortably positioned, then the straps allow the easy pulling of the sock to the desired position.

The Terry Cloth Sock Aid is also Suitable for one-handed use, making it simple to use as well as being fully machine washable for maintaining high standards of hygiene.

Looking after finger and toenails can be difficult and especially when you have to bend over and reach into different angles to remove hard skin. The Pedicure for Tough Nails smooths and buffs calluses on feet and hands, whilst also shaping and contouring toenails and fingernails.

Coming with an easy-grip ergonomic handle, this handy device helps you get into just the right position, then you can use the 3 snap-on buffers (fine, medium and course) to get just the finish you require.

It comes with 2-Way variable speed control so that you can adjust easily to the level of buffing you require. The unit is battery operated, taking just 3 x AA batteries to operate.

For any women who find that putting on their bra presents difficulty and potential strain, the Bra Angel Dressing Aid was developed by an occupational therapist, to help promote independence in women who only have the use of one hand, or who generally struggle with bra straps, as many do.

The Bra Angel is simply placed over the neck, and holds one end of the strap ready and in place, therefore allowing you to bring the other end round to fasten it very easily and with no fuss, then the Bra Angel is used in the exactly same way to help remove the bra.

This is a great example of how product innovation and imagination can solve those everyday dressing problems, especially for those who have restricted movement and find that twisting around is hard on the back, neck or shoulders.

Still on the subject of bras, another great device that is very popular with those who struggle with dressing easily, is the Buckingham BraBuddy.

This device, designed by Occupational Therapist Chris Buckingham, takes the effort out of bra dressing completely, as it holds one end of the bra firmly in place, whilst also bringing the other end of the bra around the body enabling the user to easily couple up the hooks and eyes.

The BraBuddy eradicates the need for women to have to ask for help, or buy adaptive bras so keeping both dignity and independence with daily dressing, wherever you are.

If you’d like to get more ideas, in addition to those covered in this short article, please feel free to visit the category page for dressing and comfort here.

Phil Ashforth is a staff writer for Mobility Smart, an online retailer of health, wellbeing and mobility equipment to help you recover from injury, recuperation and protection of joints and muscles when exercising or just helping you in normal daily life, you’ll find their website here.