Bariatric dressing aids

Getting dressed and undressed can often be problematic for larger people. Reaching, stretching and pulling, which are necessary activities for dressing, can often be difficult or impossible for those with bariatric needs. There are however a number of dressing aids and devices that can make this daily task much easier and more independent.

Different types of dressing aid

Some dressing aids are designed for general or multi-purpose use whilst others have a very specific application.

General dressing aids tend to be those that combine some form of stick, arm or lever to which a hook or grabber is attached. The objective of these aids is to provide additional reach in order to access parts of the body that are hard to get hold of. The hook or grabbing hand is used to grasp or hold the clothing and a lever or handle controls the opening and closing action of the dressing aid. A number of these devices have telescopically extendable arms and some are hinged or bendable to make accessing areas behind the back of the body easier.

Further examples of these aids can have more specific applications that are intended for use with certain garments. One example would be a pants or trouser lifter which is used to pull up or lower different items of clothing used to cover the legs. These devices are designed to remove the needs to bend down and pull up trousers and they are simple to use.

More information about general dressing aids can be found here clothing dressing aids.

Specialised dressing aids

A number of very specialised dressing devices include the likes of a zip puller and a button fastener.

Pulling up zips and threading buttons through button holes can be hard if the zip or button is outside of a comfortable reach, or if the dexterity of the fingers is challenged. Aids for these tasks (sometimes called easy fastening aids) use a combination of large easy grip handles with wire or hook extensions that are designed to hold or locate around the zip pull or button in question.

These aids make the task of buttoning up a shirt or pulling up the zip of a pair of trousers or a skirt much easier and they are usually small enough to fit into a pocket or handbag.

Further information about easy fastening aids can be found here.

Help putting on shoes

Putting on shoes or boots is one of the most awkward of dressing tasks for many larger bodied people. This is because of the difficulty of reaching down to the feet from either a standing or sitting position. One solution is to wear easy fit slip on shoes, but the styles and designs of these shoes can be limited (for men) and when this is the case shoes with laces may be the only option.

Shoe putting-on and removing aids fall into two categories.

The first are long handled shoe horns and shoe removers that enable slip-on shoes to be worn or taken off. The shoe horn helps to ease the foot into a shoe whilst the other device works as a shoe clamp that holds the she in place as the foot is manoeuvred into or out of the shoe. This aid is operated (or held in position) by the other foot.

The second shoe wearing aid is the coiled shoe lace that automatically holds its pressure through the throat of the shoe without the need to tie a bow or knot in the laces. This coiled lace has the effect of making a standard “shoe lace” type shoe function more like a slip on shoe. The coil laces use an elasticized action to tighten up once the foot is within the shoe. They never require a bow.

You can found out more about both kinds of shoe dressing aid at this page - help putting on and taking off shoes.

For information about bariatric shoes please refer to this page bariatric shoes for the larger person.

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