[Dysphagia] Thickened liquids

[sorriso at adelphia.net (sorriso@adelphia.net)]

Good luck with this Valerie!  The subject has been discussed before (search for it in the archives) and I believe  the upshot was that there is no way to quantify thickness in our real life settings.

I'd like to suggest that any thickened liquid may be too thick.  Have you screened/evaluated these folks lately to see if they can tolerate thin liquids?  

Our rehab company picked up a new building two years ago in which approximately 10 of the patients were on thickened (from nectar to spoon thick) and none had been re-evaled.  I picked them up, a couple at a time, and every single one of these people were able to go to thin and remain on thin with no dire consequences.  

They fell into two groups:  some had been downgraded when ill and never re-evaled when they got better or admitted long-term care from the hospital, never identified and continued on thickened when they got better.  People do get better!

Linda A. Zanchi, MA, CCC-SLP


---- Valerie Hartleb <spunkles@hotmail.com> wrote: 
> Please help me!  I work in a nursing home and I have battling the 
> administration re: how thick liquids should be when people are on nectar and 
> honey.  I believe the nursing home is overthickening resident's liquids in 
> return causing resident's not wanting to drink.  Please provide a 
> explanation re: how thick liquids really should be.  I would value anyone's 
> opinion on this matter.  Thank you very much and I look forward to hearing 
> from you.
> 
> Thank you,
> Valerie--Kalamazoo, MI
> 
> 
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