The Importance Of Feeding On Dysphagia Diet

By Martha Phillips


Dysphagia is a type of disorder that can be caused by neurological disease, stroke, or dementia. If you are suffering from this condition you are at risk for chocking or aspiration. Besides causing other conditions such as pneumonia, this disorder can also affect your ability to swallow negatively. A doctor may advise you to take dysphagia diet so as to minimize chances of suffering from conditions like dehydration and malnutrition.

Swallowing difficulties, poor motivation, choking, pocketing food, and poor chewing ability are the main symptoms of this problem. As a patient, you will need to be very careful when selecting the types of food to eat otherwise you may die of hunger. You need to know the types of foods that can either be swallowed or eaten with minimal challenges. You will need to keep away from foods and drinks than can get into the windpipe.

Every patient is different and may not need to undergo the same treatment procedure as others. Your doctor will look at your problems keenly before coming up with a good method of dealing with the particular problem. However, you should eat a variety of foods and also ensure that the diet is balanced. You should also be creative enough when selecting foods that can be appropriate to you. If you cannot eat large meals, consider having frequent and small meals.

Patients should sit upright when taking meals (drinks and foods). After the meal, he or she should not change the original body position for the next 30 minutes. This is the only sure way to diminish the risk for chocking. Immediately after the meal, the ailing individual should use the correct technique to keep his or her mouth clean. If you are not capable of preparing food to feed on, consider hiring a nutritionist.

Choose a nutritionist who has analytical mind. For a nutritionist to prepare good meals, he or she needs to have working ideas. Most importantly, he or she needs to have mature ways of solving some of the problems experienced. This skill will help him or her apply nutritional knowledge to come up with appropriate eating plans for you. One must be capable of interpreting scientific studies in order to provide the right guidance.

The best practitioners have savvy people skills. They like talking and interacting with people. This is the kind of nutritionist you should hire if you want good care. It is recommendable to choose a practitioner who is a good listener. She or he will find it easy to hear and understand your needs.

Any good nutritionist must have the ability to communicate freely in writing and speaking. These professionals work with scientific information. A good communicator will be able to translate complicated scientific terms into a language that you can understand. Those who communicate eloquently experience fewer challenges when instructing the clients.

It is recommendable to hire a nutritionist with technical know-how. She or he is unlikely to make mistakes when using special tools to evaluate your body health. They mainly use tools such as calorimeter when evaluating the metabolism of patients. They use an instrument called bioelectric impedance machine when checking on the body fat of an individual.




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