topic Re: Dysphagia in Wellness

Dysphagia

coffee drinker — Wed, 10 May 2023 13:49:30 GMT

My husband is currently suffering (temporary, I hope) from swallowing difficulties. He'll soon be discharged from nursing home care and will have to eat a pureed food diet. If any of you or family member have experienced this, what meal prep or foods did you prepare that were good(?). He is eating this food while hospitalized and does not complain, but I just don't know what or how to cook this stuff. I'm going to get a cookbook recommendation from his speach thereapist so that may help. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Re: Dysphagia

D Kay — Wed, 10 May 2023 14:09:46 GMT

If you google pureed foods for adults, there are a number of websites that address this. Just about any food can be pureed using a blender or food processer and adding appropriate amount of liquid to make food a pudding like consistancy that doesn't require chewing. The info I saw online gave examples of what to add to thicken it if desired. There are even companies that sell prepackaged pureed foods. That might be more convenient but certainly not necessary.

Re: Dysphagia

On It — Wed, 10 May 2023 14:58:52 GMT

My mother lived with swallowing difficulties for at least 10 years. She ordered soft foods in restaurants like baked or mashed potatoes, soups, etc. At home she drank Ensure once a day midafternoon. We bought a blender and tried to get her to purée her foods, but she would not let us do that. When planning meals, prepare what you both enjoy. Purée his and hopefully he will enjoy the home cooked taste. Keep soups and jars of puréed food on hand in case you need them.

It seems a blender or Vitamix would be a wonderful tool in your kitchen. Some tips my mother learned was a Coca Cola drink in the restaurant made her food go down more easily. She avoided "sticky" foods like pasta that can harden on the way down the esophagus. Try to think of foods he enjoys like yogurt, ice cream, sherbet, milkshakes, etc. Good luck to both of you.

Re: Dysphagia

manny2 — Wed, 10 May 2023 15:27:22 GMT

The speech therapist is the person to guide you. They will show you and tell you exactly what he should do. Good luck.

Re: Dysphagia

Mindy D — Wed, 10 May 2023 21:47:23 GMT

@coffee drinker wrote:
My husband is currently suffering (temporary, I hope) from swallowing difficulties. He'll soon be discharged from nursing home care and will have to eat a pureed food diet. If any of you or family member have experienced this, what meal prep or foods did you prepare that were good(?). He is eating this food while hospitalized and does not complain, but I just don't know what or how to cook this stuff. I'm going to get a cookbook recommendation from his speach thereapist so that may help. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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@coffee drinker @Go to Sherri Smith No Chew Foods on YouTube for great recipes. People with dysphagia have difficulty swallowing different things. For example, my mom could not swallow liquids. She could swallow very, very thick liquids...She also needed puréed foods. My dad could swallow liquids without a problem but needed puréed or mechanical soft foods with a sauce on them. Some need to eat puréed foods. Be sure and check with the hospital and speech therapist to know exactly what foods your husband can eat. Make sure you have a food processor and other equipment that can puree. Puréed chicken salad is good. Cook chicken the way you always do, add Mayo and whatever else you like and purée. You can buy deli prepared chicken salad and purée. Make macaroni and cheese or buy it and purée. Stouffers Spinach Souffle is already puréed consistency. Make mashed potatoes and butter or gravy or buy prepared, ready to heat Signature Mashed Potatoes by Main Street. To purée things you need to add something creamy or liquid to get it to consistency. You can purée meatloaf or meatballs and add a gravy to the purée. Sometimes people do not need a fully puréed food..they can swallow almost fully puréed. Anything you cook or make can be puréed. Check the YouTube channel I mentioned to get started. Mashed cauliflour is good. Puddings are good. Yogurt is ready to use. You can purée blueberries or strawberries and add to the yogurt. Oatmeal is ready to go, but you might need to thin it and add butter, milk or water. Mashed bananas are good. scrambled eggs can be puréed with ketchup. Hard boiled eggs can be made into an egg salad with mayo or Greek yogurt. Spaghetti noodles can be puréed and then tomato sauce added on top of the puréed noodles. Hummus is ready to eat. Black bean soup or black beans can be puréed. Sweet potatoes can be easily microwaved and mashed or puréed. Avocado can also be mashed or puréed and keeps longer and can have some vitamin C in it with fresh squeezed lemon juice. Meats that are cooked in moist heat with gravies are easily puréed or almost puréed. Hormel makes a few that are ready to heat if you don't have time to do them from scratch. Carrots are easily puréed or cooked until soft an mashed. Apple sauce is ready to use. Cream of Wheat is good to go. Ricotta and cottage cheese might need light pureeing but are good with puréed veggies or fruits. You can even get fancy and make shrimp mousse, lobster bisque with purred lobster in it. Cream soups work well. Besides your Vtamis an immersion blender and a pull chopper can be useful. Amy's Organic Lentil Soup is delicious puréed or not.

Also see Hormel Health Labs on YouTube. Hormel has ready to prepare foods for different levels of dysphasia. Try their website too.

You can also get the puréed foods from Hormel on Amazon and they have a second brand of foods called Thick and Easy. They even have French toast.

The Vitamix website has some good recipes.

You should also know that many can eat soft foods..but you have to check with the hospital dietician and speech therapist that looked at the swallowing test your husband took.

Remember that there are different levels of dysphagia and the right foods help avoid any food getting to the lungs.

Re: Dysphagia

SilleeMee — Wed, 10 May 2023 15:42:54 GMT

I have mild to moderate dysphasia. Most everything I eat has to be chewed very well or the food has to be chopped up into very small pieces which I prefer b/c chewing doesn't always get my food into small enough bits to swallow.

I have this Ninja Prep Master and I use it every single day at least twice a day. I really don't know what I would do w/o it.

Re: Dysphagia

chrystaltree — Wed, 10 May 2023 16:07:01 GMT

You should be working with your speech therapist and the nursing staff. You need professional advice. There are challenges with dysphagia, it does not mean he eat just any soft food. My mom had dysphagia when she was 80ish but not for long. A few months until she saw a specialist. They were able to dilate her esophagus which had narrowed due to her age. She could swallow normally after that procedure.

Re: Dysphagia

SilleeMee — Wed, 10 May 2023 16:17:11 GMT

@chrystaltree wrote:
You should be working with your speech therapist and the nursing staff. You need professional advice. There are challenges with dysphagia, it does not mean he eat just any soft food. My mom had dysphagia when she was 80ish but not for long. A few months until she saw a specialist. They were able to dilate her esophagus which had narrowed due to her age. She could swallow normally after that procedure.

I have narrowing of my esophagus caused from scleroderma. Esophageal dilation doesn't work for people with scleroderma b/c the cartilage structure is hardened and has lost elasticity. For severely narrowed esophagus the only option is to replace the esophagus by transplantation. I hope I never get that far.

Re: Dysphagia

coffee drinker — Wed, 10 May 2023 18:51:42 GMT

@SilleeMee Would you believe I just gave one away a few months ago. Sillee Me!!! I do have a Vitamix, fortunately.

Re: Dysphagia

SilleeMee — Wed, 10 May 2023 18:55:05 GMT

@coffee drinker wrote:
@SilleeMee Would you believe I just gave one away a few months ago. Sillee Me!!! I do have a Vitamix, fortunately.

@coffee drinker

Oh no. But your Vitamix is great I'm sure. Glad you kept that one!

Re: Dysphagia

coffee drinker — Wed, 10 May 2023 18:55:57 GMT

@Mindy D Thank you is not enough for ALL the info you gave me. I definitely will check out that You Tube person. Seems like You Tube is so valuable for topics like this.

Again, thank you so much.

Re: Dysphagia

Q-Checker — Wed, 10 May 2023 20:30:18 GMT

@coffee drinker. I understand your concerns and am glad that you are seeking information. As others have said, consult the speech therapist. There is no "one size fits all" solution to dysphagia and some of the well -intentioned" recommendations, e,g, milk-based foods may actually be contraindicated in your husband's case. You may want to consult further with the speech therapist and, in the course of this contact, inquire about some of the suggestions made in this forum, I strongly recommend this and hope that you get all of the information you need.

Re: Dysphagia

conlt — Thu, 11 May 2023 11:15:29 GMT

We went through this with my mother. She had to be on pureed diet. We used the thickener called "Simply Thick". It was the best thickener out there. Expensive but worth it. The person can get constipation from thickener.

Another good thing to buy is "magic Cups". They are like an ice cream but they melt into a thickened food rather then a liquid.

We pureed just about everything. Mom did not seem to mind the diet.

I don't know what insurance your husband has but if he is on Medicare or even another insurance, he should be eligible for a home health care Speech Therapist. He will need that and probably the other therapies, Physical and Occupational. The Speech Therapist can help you with the diet.

Both Simply Thick and Magic Cups I purchased directly from their websites. They were lifesavers for mom. My mom loved her ice cream and the Magic Cups satisfied her. The Magic Cups also are high in nutrition and calories. Good luck.

Re: Dysphagia

Snoopp — Thu, 11 May 2023 21:00:42 GMT

Magic cups are very good, as the poster above said. Also, any thickener...Thick It is good too. Ask the speech therapist to tell you what stage mechanical soft diet he has. They can tell you and you make the foods and adjust the drinks that correspond to that diet. I used a vitamix and food processor to puree some foods.

I think this was mentioned earlier, but Hormel and Nestle have pureed food products that are pretty good. The prepared meals aren't bad and you can buy them online.

Milkshakes and smoothies can be made to the right consistency too...just check with the speech therapist. I can't remember the number of each mechanical diet; I believe the products you can buy, for example, the drinks, are thickened to the exact stage you are in. For example, one is nectar thickness.

Hope this helps.

Re: Dysphagia

Q-Checker — Mon, 15 May 2023 18:55:42 GMT

@coffee drinker, I noticed that you did not respond to my previous reply about your concerns about your husband's diet since he was diagnosed with dysphagia. I hope that you did read my reply. I applaud you for seeking information, but there are no one size fits all solutions. I have a graduate degree in speech pathology and took a graduate level course in dysphagia, so I do know something about this disorder. Please rely only on professional advice, not on the well-intentioned notions and hot tips of untrained strangers. The swallowing mechanisms of their loved ones may be completely different from those of your husband. I hope that he had a barium swallow study as the basis for any recommendations. I wish you well in your quest to provide good care for your husband.

Re: Dysphagia

ninjawife — Mon, 15 May 2023 20:45:29 GMT

I am also a speech language pathologist and have experience with dysphagia. The diets that some people are referring to are outdated. In 2019 the international Dysphagia Diet Standarization Initative was created to use the same termology throughout the world when referring to the different diet levels. I provided a link that describes the different diets for solids and liquids and what to do to test that the food you are preparing meets the standards for the diets your husband has been prescribed. Like the other speech language pathologist noted get specific diet information from your husband's speech pathologist so you know exactly what and how to prepare safe foods.

https://iddsi.org/IDDSI/media/images/Complete_IDDSI_Framework_Final_31July2019.pdf

Re: Dysphagia

Q-Checker — Tue, 16 May 2023 00:39:42 GMT

Thank you for posting that link. I am sure that it will be helpful to many people. I "retired" my SLP license, along with my "C's," some time ago although I remain an ASHA member ship (Retired status) and scan some of the literature. I wish that ASHA was more pro-active in public education and less involved in some of what I consider to be "fringe issues." For the non-SLP's (Speech-Language Pathologists) reading this, ASHA is The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the national association and credentialing body for speech pathologists and audiologists.

Re: Dysphagia

coffee drinker — Sun, 21 May 2023 13:53:00 GMT

@Q-Checker @ninjawife Yes, I did read both of your posts and thank you both very much. @ninjawife, I will check that post you mentioned. It's been very busy here since DH was discharged to home hospice care. I've tried different "recipes" and they don't seem to his liking. Finally, this morning he was able to eat 1/2 soft boiled pureed egg and a bit of coffee. I try supplementing with Boost which he seems to take. It just so upsetting he just has no interest in food. I cook and most of it gets thrown out.

ETA --yes, he did have 2 barrium tests while in hospital.

Re: Dysphagia

ninjawife — Sun, 21 May 2023 15:55:57 GMT

@coffee drinker I am sorry that you are having a hard time finding things that are appetizing for him. Is there anything he ate in the hospital that you could replicate? Ask your speech pathologist if he is allowed scrambled eggs as most patients on a pureed diet are. It is not unusual for patients who have to go on modified diets to reject choices they are given. I know it is upsetting and I wish you the best.

Re: Dysphagia

Squirrels Are Trash — Sun, 21 May 2023 16:12:28 GMT

@On It wrote:
My mother lived with swallowing difficulties for at least 10 years. She ordered soft foods in restaurants like baked or mashed potatoes, soups, etc. At home she drank Ensure once a day midafternoon. We bought a blender and tried to get her to purée her foods, but she would not let us do that. When planning meals, prepare what you both enjoy. Purée his and hopefully he will enjoy the home cooked taste. Keep soups and jars of puréed food on hand in case you need them.

It seems a blender or Vitamix would be a wonderful tool in your kitchen. Some tips my mother learned was a Coca Cola drink in the restaurant made her food go down more easily. She avoided "sticky" foods like pasta that can harden on the way down the esophagus. Try to think of foods he enjoys like yogurt, ice cream, sherbet, milkshakes, etc. Good luck to both of you.

After a mild stroke, I had difficulties swallowing for a few months but not enough to be diagnosed as Dysphagia. The Coke tip is a good one.