Try: Make sure to cut the food into small pieces and make it soft enough to eat grind food or make it liquid using a blender or baby food grinder offer cr soft foods such as ice cream milk shakes yogurt soups applesauce gelatin or custard don’t use a straw; it may cause more swallowing problems instead have cr drink small sips from a cup limit the amount of milk the person drinks if it tends to catch in the throat give cr more cold drinks than hot drinks cold drinks are easier to swallow don’t give cr thin liquids such as coffee tea water or broth because they are hardest to swallow try buying thick-it which is available at most pharmacies add thick-it to liquids to make them thicker alternatively try using ice cream and sherbet to thicken liquids

Materials: Blender or baby food grinder

Categories: Sage, Topic, Medical Physical, Independence, Some Supervision, Maximum Supervision, Verbal Communication, So-So Verbal Comm, Poor Verbal Comm, Cognitive Awareness, Somewhat Aware, Unaware, Long-Term Memory, So-So L T Memory, Poor L T Memory, Short-Term Memory, So-So S T Memory, Poor S T Memory

Information: May have to be repeated more than once to different staff members tell er staff that cr has cognitive problems explain how best to talk with cr if cr must stay overnight in the hospital try to have a friend or family member stay with him her

References: caring for a person with alzheimer’s disease your easy-to-use guide from the national institute on aging by national institute on aging 2011 available at www nia nih gov

Keywords: Swallow swallowing chew chewing eating throat mouth

*This information is listed as a Tip and is not explicitly medically licensed