What can I eat with dysphagia?
- Ice cream
- Foods with a lot of gelatin
- Foods with lots of salt
- Foods with a lot of sugar
- Foods that are “soft”
What foods are difficult to swallow?
Other discoveries:
- Fibrous or stringy foods, such as turkey thighs, don’t puree well.
- Steaming vegetables and pressure-cooking rice keeps them moist, more flavorful and full of nutrition when later pureeing them.
- Allowing diners to see the cooked food before it’s pureed and take in the aroma of the foods helps engage the senses and add to the enjoyment of the meal.
What foods are easy to chew?
- Cooked cereals
- Mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams
- Baked potato without skin
- Soft, moist rice
- Noodles, macaroni, spaghetti
- Dry cereals softened in milk
- Pancakes and waffles softened with syrup/butter
- Crackers or breads added to soups
- Hard bread with thick crust
- Dry cereals without milk
How to puree food for dysphagia?
- Always serve your puréed meal fresh
- Do not add sauce or gravy to your plated puréed meal
- You can use piping bags to pipe the puréed food into recognisable shapes such as carrots or broccoli. ...
- Always check the consistency of the puréed food before serving using the food testing methods outlined above
- Do not blend all the food components together
Why is dysphagia diet important?
A dysphagia diet features different textures of foods and liquids that can make it easier and safer for patients to swallow. These textures make it easier to chew and move food in the mouth and reduce the risk of food or liquid going into the windpipe or trachea, which leads to the lungs.
Which foods are contraindicated for patients who are restricted to a Level 2 dysphagia diet?
Rice or bread pudding. The following are considered thin liquids and should be avoided if thin liquids are restricted: Frozen malts, milk shakes, frozen yogurt, eggnog, nutritional supplements, ice cream, sherbet, regular or sugar-free gelatin (jell-o), or any foods that become watery at room temperature.
What are the stages of a dysphagia diet?
Levels of a dysphagia dietLevel 1. These are foods that are pureed or smooth, like pudding. They need no chewing. ... Level 2. These are moist foods that need some chewing. ... Level 3. This includes soft-solid foods that need more chewing. ... Level 4. This level includes all foods.
Which item is safe to give a patient on mildly thick liquids Level 2?
Level 2 – Mildly Thick drinks may be used if Thin drinks (water, milk, and others) and Level 1 Slightly Thick liquids flow too quickly for you to swallow them safely. Some milk shakes and thick shakes may be this thickness level already, but other drinks may need thickener added to reach the correct thickness level.
What are Level 2 liquids?
Level 2 – Mildly Thick It is a fluid which: Flows off a spoon. Sippable, pours quickly from a spoon, but slower than unthickened drinks.
What foods make dysphagia worse?
Foods with a fibrous or 'stringy' texture - e.g. celery, green beans, melted cheese or pineapple. Fruit or vegetables with thick skins, seeds or pips - e.g. baked beans, peas, grapes and tomatoes. Crunchy and crumbly items such as toasts, biscuits, crackers, crisps, pie crusts.
What is a dysphagia 3 diet?
A level 3 diet is the least limited. It is used as a transition to a normal diet. People on this diet can eat bite-sized pieces of moist foods with near-normal textures. They should avoid very hard, sticky, or crunchy foods, such as dried fruit or nuts.
What are the 4 stages of dysphagia?
There are 4 phases of swallowing:The Pre-oral Phase. – Starts with the anticipation of food being introduced into the mouth – Salivation is triggered by the sight and smell of food (as well as hunger)The Oral Phase. ... The Pharyngeal Phase. ... The Oesophageal Phase.
What is a dysphagia Level 1 diet?
A dysphagia diet plan has 3 levels. Each level is based on how serious a person's dysphagia is. A level 1 diet is the most limited. People on this diet should eat only pureed, pudding-like foods. They should avoid foods with coarse textures.
Why is thickened fluids good for dysphagia?
A key element in reducing the risk of choking and aspiration when drinking is to modify the texture of the fluid consumed by people with dysphagia. Thickened fluids are easier to swallow as they enter the pharynx slowly, allowing time for the pathway to the lungs to be closed off to avoid aspiration and choking.
What is the purpose of thick it?
Thick-It is a major brand of food and drink thickener. According to the company, the cornstarch-based powder “dissolves instantly in your favorite foods and beverages.” Thick-It is also available as a pre-blended thickened water. Thick-It is designed for people with dysphagia, a medical term for trouble swallowing.
How does thickening liquids help with swallowing?
Thickened liquids give you better control of the liquid in your mouth. They help slow down the flow rate of liquids, which lessens the chance of liquid going into your airway or “going down the wrong pipe.”
What foods should you avoid with dysphagia?
It is important to avoid other foods, including:Non-pureed breads.Any cereal with lumps.Cookies, cakes, or pastry.Whole fruit of any kind.Non-pureed meats, beans, or cheese.Scrambled, fried, or hard-boiled eggs.Non-pureed potatoes, pasta, or rice.Non-pureed soups.More items...
What food should be avoided in Level 3 of the National dysphagia diet?
Foods to avoid:Dry bread, crackers, and tough breads.Very coarse cereals or dry cereals.Cookies or cakes that are very dry or that contain nuts, dried fruit, seeds, or other hard pieces.Fresh fruit that is hard to chew.Dry or tough meats.Chunky peanut butter.Potato skins, potato chips, corn, or popcorn.More items...
Which food might be included on a Level 1 National dysphagia diet Menu?
What can you eat?Pureed breads (also called pre-gelled breads)Smooth puddings, custards, yogurts, and pureed desserts.Pureed fruits and mashed bananas.Pureed meats.Soufflés.Mashed potatoes that are moistened.Pureed soups.Pureed vegetables with no lumps, chunks, or seeds.
What can I eat with difficulty swallowing?
Choose foods that are easy to swallow. Try breakfast foods like instant oatmeal, grits, pancakes, waffles, and cold cereal that has been softened in milk. For a main dish, try chicken, tuna or egg salad, soups and stews, soft cooked fish, tofu, and meatloaf.
What Is A Dysphagia Diet?
When you have dysphagia, you have trouble swallowing. You are also at risk for aspiration. Aspiration is when food or liquid enters the lungs by ac...
While You’Re on A Dysphagia Diet
1. Follow all instructions about what food and drink you can have. 2. Do swallowing exercises as advised. 3. Do not change your food or liquids, ev...
How Long A Dysphagia Diet Is needed?
Your healthcare team will keep track of how well you are swallowing. You may need follow-up tests such as a fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swa...
When to Call Your Healthcare Provider
Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of these: 1. Your trouble swallowing gets worse 2. Unintended weight loss 3. Food comes ba...
What Is A Level 2 National Dysphagia Diet?
A level 2 national dysphagia diet includes only moist, soft foods. Regular foods need to be modified to make them easier to chew and swallow. This...
What Do I Need to Know About Thickened liquids?
Thin liquids can be thickened with special thickeners, flour, cornstarch, or potato flakes. Thin liquids include milk, juice, coffee, tea, soda, an...
What Foods Should I Avoid?
1. Grains: 1. Very coarse cereals that contain seeds, nuts, or dried fruit 2. Rice, rice pudding, and bread pudding 2. Vegetables and fruits: 1. Ra...
What is the level 2 diet?
A level 2 National Dysphagia Diet includes only moist, soft foods. Regular foods need to be changed to make them easier to chew and swallow. This can be done by blending, chopping, grinding, mashing, shredding, or cooking the food. You need to have some chewing ability to eat these foods. Your healthcare provider will tell you how long you need ...
What is the IDDSI level for pudding?
The IDDSI level for these liquids is 3 (moderately thick). Pudding-thick liquids need to be eaten with a spoon. You should not be able to drink them through a straw. The IDDSI level for these liquids is 4 (extremely thick).
What level of liquids are needed for IDDSI?
For the IDDSI system, liquids are levels 0 through 4. Your healthcare provider will tell you if which liquids you can have. Liquids can be thickened, if needed, with thickeners, flour, cornstarch, or potato flakes. Foods that are liquid at room temperature should also be thickened.
How many levels are there in the IDDSI?
The IDDSI contains 8 levels, from the thinnest liquids and foods to the thickest. Foods from the National Dysphagia Diet level 2 diet are on IDDSI level 5. Your provider may show you how to use IDDSI guidelines to test the thickness of your food or liquid.
How to make food hard to swallow?
This can make the food hard to swallow. Eat a variety of healthy foods. Eat 6 to 8 small meals each day to get enough calories and nutrients. You may need to take a multivitamin and mineral supplement if you do not get all the nutrients you need. Ask if you can crush these and add them to pureed food.
How to make a sourdough bread?
Make the pieces ¼ inch (0.635 cm) or smaller. Moisten the food by adding gravy, sauce, vegetable or fruit juice, milk, or half and half. Pour sauce or gravy over bread slices or syrup over pancakes. Allow the food to soften and dissolve. Add dry milk powder to foods for extra protein and calories, if needed.
Why is a dysphagia diet important?
Why a dysphagia diet is needed. When you have dysphagia, you are at risk for aspiration. Aspiration is when food or liquid enters the lungs by accident. It can cause pneumonia and other problems. The foods you eat can affect your ability to swallow. For example, soft foods are easier to swallow than hard foods.
How many levels of food are there in the National Dysphagia Diet?
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has created a diet plan for people with dysphagia. The plan is called the National Dysphagia Diet. The dysphagia diet has 4 levels of foods. The levels are:
What test is needed to check for dysphagia?
Your healthcare team will keep track of how well you are swallowing. You may need follow-up tests such as a fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) test. If your swallowing gets better or worse, your SLP may change your dysphagia diet over time.
How to adjust to a new diet?
You may also need to make liquids thicker. You can manage your liquids by making thin liquids thicker. This is done by adding a flavorless gel, gum, powder, or other liquid to it. These are called thickeners.
How to help dysphagia?
While you are on a dysphagia diet. Follow all instructions about what food and drink you can have. Do swallowing exercises as advised . Do not change your food or liquids, even if your swallowing gets better. Talk with your health care provider first. Crush medicines and mix them with food as needed.
What is level 2 food?
Level 2. These are moist foods that need some chewing. They include soft, cooked, or mashed fruits or vegetables, soft or ground meats moist with gravy, cottage cheese, peanut butter, and soft scrambled eggs. You should avoid crackers, nuts, and other dry foods. Level 3.
What causes less saliva?
Conditions that lead to less saliva, such as Sjogren syndrome. Mouth sores. Parkinson disease or other neurologic conditions. Muscular dystrophies. Blockage in the esophagus, such as a growth from cancer. History of radiation therapy or surgery for throat cancer. You may need to follow a dysphagia diet for only a short time.
What is level 3 dysphagia?
Level 3: Dysphagia Advanced Diet. The foods are nearly in regular textures but still, need to be moist and should be in bite size pieces at the oral phase of the swallow. Food that are very hard, sticky or crunchy must still be avoided.
How many levels of diet are there for pneumonia?
Obviously, this requires a specialized diet. There are five different diet levels from puréed (level 1) up through modified regular food (level 5).
What is a cohesive, moist, semi-solid diet?
Food is cohesive, moist, semi-solid diet which requires some chewing ability. It includes moist, ground, soft textured, minced or can be mashed easily, simple to chew foods that are included in a transition from puree texture to mechanical soft texture.
Why is it difficult to swallow food?
Problems at any point during the swallow (from chewing food and moving it into the back of the mouth, to moving the food into the stomach) can result in difficulty in swallowing. When you have dysphagia, you are at risk for aspiration. Aspiration is when food or liquid enters the lungs by accident. It can cause pneumonia and other problems.
Does dysphagia prevent aspiration?
A dysphagia diet can help prevent aspiration . You may be at risk for aspiration from dysphagia if you have any of these health conditions: The first step in treatment is to make the proper diagnosis. This involves a medical history and various tests to find the cause of the dysphagia.
What is the level 1 of the Dysphagia diet?
The National Dysphagia Diet, published in 2002, developed universal terminology for texture-modified diets. The dysphagia pureed diet (level 1) is one of three levels of texture modification that is used.
What foods are allowed on the dysphagia advanced diet?
It is important to include a variety of foods from all different food groups when providing a dysphagia advanced diet, including fruits, vegetables, grains, meats and meat substitutes, and dairy foods.
What is the definition of dysphagia mechanically altered diet?
The dysphagia mechanically altered diet (level 2) is one of three levels of texture modification that is used.
What foods are included in mechanically altered diet?
It is important to include a variety of foods from all different food groups when providing a mechanically altered diet, including fruits, vegetables, grains, meats and meat substitutes, and dairy foods .
Who orders a pureed diet?
Who orders a dysphagia pureed diet? Normally a speech therapist will recommend a dysphagia pureed diet after evaluating a patient who has problems chewing or swallowing food. In some cases, medical tests are used to determine the best texture for a patient.
What Are The Stages of Dysphagia Diets? And How to Advance Them
The International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative (IDDSI) Framework is now the gold standard for determining diet textures for dysphagia. But what is it? And how does it differ from the old food textures and drink thickness recommendations?
The Stages of Dysphagia Diet
The International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative (IDDSI) categorizes food textures and drink thickness into eight levels, from 0-7.
Factors to Consider When Advancing Diets
Consider your patient’s physical and cognitive functioning when deciding when and how to advance diet textures:
Introduce Safe Swallowing Strategies
Introduce safe swallowing strategies if the patient demonstrates signs or symptoms of dysphagia during the food and liquid trials. See our Swallowing Strategies & Exercises article for more details.
Add Swallowing Exercises
Introduce swallowing exercises in order to improve underlying weakness or discoordination. Exercises should be intensive with a high number of repetitions.
Follow-Up Instrumental Evaluations
Recommend repeat MBSS and FEES as appropriate. Patients with severe pharyngeal dysphagia may need as many as three or more instrumental evaluations throughout their time in speech therapy.
Getting Off An NPO Diet
Many patients who are NPO and/or are tube-fed can recover enough to resume a fully PO diet. Communicate regularly with the patient’s physician, dietician, gastroenterologist, and/or respiratory therapist to ensure that the patient is safe and receives adequate nutrition for a PO diet.
How to help dysphagia patients?
Follow all instructions about what food and drink you can have. Do swallowing exercises as advised. Do not change your food or liquids, even if your swallowing gets better. Talk with your health care provider first. Tell all health care providers and caregivers that you are on a dysphagia diet.
What is the most restrictive diet for dysphagia?
A level 1 dysphagia diet is the most restrictive. People on this diet should eat only pureed “pudding-like” foods. They should avoid foods with coarse textures. The National Dysphagia Diet also addresses liquids. They are evaluated separately from solid foods.
What to do if you have a blockage in your esophagus?
Blockage in the esophagus (such as from a tumor) If you have severe or moderate dysphagia, you may need to follow the level 1 dysphagia diet as part of your treatment plan. Doing so can help lower your risk for aspiration. Your treatment may also include other therapies. You may need to do special swallowing exercises or take medicine.
What is the part of the throat where food enters the lungs?
This type of diet can help prevent aspiration. When you swallow, food passes through your mouth and into a part of your throat called the pharynx.
What is a level 1 diet?
What Is a level 1 dysphagia diet? A level 1 dysphagia diet is a special eating plan. Your health care provider may recommend it if you have moderate to severe dysphagia. When you have dysphagia, you have trouble swallowing. You are also at risk for aspiration.
What happens when you breathe in dysphagia?
If you have dysphagia, the muscles don’t work properly. You may not be able to swallow normally. When you breathe, air also enters your mouth and pharynx.
Can you move to a less restrictive diet after a stroke?
Many people who have dysphagia due to a stroke find that their swallowing problems improve with time and therapy. If your swallowing gets better, you may be able to move to a less restrictive diet. If your swallowing worsens, you may need to temporarily use other methods of getting nutrition.