Nutrition For Dysphagia: Thickened Liquids!

Being a speech pathologist, I was typically asked questions akin to this by the friends and family of individuals who had been freshly diagnosed with a swallowing problem. The majority of individuals have never thought about swallowing problems, let alone thickened liquids. Swallowing problems which is also called Dysphagia aren’t general; nevertheless they could impact individuals of all ages. There are a lot of recognized causes of dysphagia nevertheless a few of the more general ones are: stroke; surgery; Parkinson’s disorder; neck or head injury; and transformations to the nerves connected to throat which create swallowing a problem for the aged people.

In case somebody you know has been diagnosed with dysphagia, likelihood is they have been advised ‘thickened liquids’ as they serve as good nutrition for dysphagia patients. Thickened drinks are typically basic drinks which have had an exclusively made thickener supplemented to them, to create them thicker as compared to normal drinks. They are advised by speech pathologists for individuals that could no longer swallow regular drinks safely and that are at danger of having drinks enter into their lungs. The outcomes of drinks entering into the lungs could be severe coughing; choking or more grave perils for instance chest infection & aspiration pneumonia.

I lately worked with one female who, just 4 months earlier, had been in hospital with her 3rd spell of aspiration pneumonia in less than a year. She had been advised thickened fluids for more than 10 months earlier, nevertheless she was still consuming usual drinks to the minimum once in 24 hours and small quantities of the drinks were entering into her lungs. This was an issue, not just owing to the liquid in the lungs, nevertheless since natural growing bacteria in her mouth went with the liquid and into her lungs. As soon as this takes place, it is just a moment of time ahead of the bacteria leads to a chest infection called aspiration pneumonia. Luckily to this lady, she ultimately gives ear to recommendation and just consumed the thickened fluids which were advised to her. She has not had a reappearance of aspiration pneumonia after that.

So what is so great about thickened liquids? Let me first tell you that they serve as level 4 pureed diet as stated by the International Dysphasia Standardization Initiative (IDDSI).

One fine reason these types of drinks work is since they go down more gradually down the throat & are simpler for an individual to control while they swallow. To obtain a greater idea, think about this – Somebody begins pouring water out of a cup & asks you to grab it in a bowl which you are carrying. You would attempt to respond as fast as you could, nevertheless there would possibly be a stoppage b/w while they begin pouring and while you have budged the bowl to grab the water. This small stoppage would possibly imply that some of the water drops over the floor. Now think about somebody pouring a thickened liquid, such as a thick shake, out of a bottle. You would possibly catch more of this drink since the thick shake goes more steadily out of the cup and provides you more time to react.

This is same situation to what occurs when somebody having a dysphagia consumes water v/s a thickened liquid. While they consume water, the muscles as well as nerves in their throat do not respond fast enough & some of the water could travel into their lungs. Nevertheless while they consume thickened liquids, the liquid travels more slowly & this provides their body more time to control as well as drive the liquid away from their lungs & into their stomach.

That is one reason behind the recommendation of thickened fluids. As individuals with swallowing problems likely to have the difficulty around the clock, all days, thickened liquids are susceptible to take place of usual drinks. This implies individuals consuming thickened liquids will in the majority of the scenarios, not be capable to consume usual drinks completely or unless their doctor recommends otherwise. Hence, when somebody is on thickened fluids, they must focus on consuming as much as of them as is required to keep up average hydration (1.5 to 3 liters).