help with "thickened liquid diet" swallowing issue (UPDATE-recipe)

[big brown horse]

My daughter has a paralyzed vocal chord which causes her to silently aspirate on thin liquids or food that isn't softened. (This should be fixed by her ENT soon, so don't worry.)

The thicker the drink, the slower it goes down the throat and hopefully into the esophagus.

Choosing and or making "mechanically sofened foods" is pretty easy, so no issues there. She can eat pretty much anything that isn't dry and crispy, or too thin in consistancy.

The problem is hydration. Can you imagine drinking a thick beverage all the time? (How bout if you were 14?)

I have a thickening agent which is a modified food starch made specifically for people on a thickened liquid diet. You just add it to their drinks or broth etc and it makes it "nectar" thick or even "honey" thick. I'm not excited to give this to her as you guys can imagine. Thankfully I just learned about chia seeds. Today she had a chia seed thickened glass of orange juice and she loved it.

There is just too much sugar in smoothies and shakes. I also don't want to give her sugar free thickened soft drinks or gatorade etc either.

I have been giving her raw milk kefir "shakes" made with raw honey and stevia, but honestly she is getting tired of them. She cannot have any caffine so thickened kombucha is out too. Water (her favorite drink) tastes disgusting in a gel form too. I've made her chocolate thickened milk with cocoa and stevia. Oh, I also made her a pitcher of rosemary lemonade with stevia too.

Do you guys have any other ideas for me? Looks like we have another 2 months to go before her vocal chord gets fixed.

 

[Beekissed]

Sal, those thickened water drinks go down better if you can make them into a slushy consistency....maybe with a food processor? Any way to crush the ice into a fine consistency and add the thickener....then it doesn't look so unappealing and the coldness kind of takes one's mind off the consistency of the thickener.

It's a good way to hydrate with water without having it too thin but still not have that slime factor.

 

[big brown horse]

Sal, those thickened water drinks go down better if you can make them into a slushy consistency....maybe with a food processor? Any way to crush the ice into a fine consistency and add the thickener....then it doesn't look so unappealing and the coldness kind of takes one's mind off the consistency of the thickener.

It's a good way to hydrate with water without having it too thin but still not have that slime factor.

I didn't think about that, thanks!

 

[Beekissed]

Old nurse tricks come in handy sometimes.....

 

[abifae]

Bee stole my comment! LOL. Worked as a CNA at a spinal cord hospital and we did that too

 

[savingdogs]

How about jello?

 

[Henrietta23]

I will check in with my Speech Pathology department-mates. Swallowing therapy is something assistants are not allowed to do and I never studied, by they sure know!

 

[lwheelr]

Bananas blend up into milk or juice and thicken them nicely.

Another trick I learned when I had a nutritional deficiency that caused me to aspirate - breathe IN before you start drinking anything, so that if you breathe between swallows, you are breathing OUT, not IN.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Broths get thicker if you cook some okra in it. Since okra is pretty mild tasting so that still leaves lots of options for how it can taste. Good soup weather lately too.

 

[CJW]

How does she do with watermelon or cucumbers? Those have a very high water ratio. Tomatoes, Squash, Peaches, cooked beans (like kidney or pinto) also contain a lot of water.