1. Dysphagia Diet In-Service
Jeff Seborer & Haley Powers

2. What is dysphagia? Trouble chewing, swallowing, or both
3 of the most common types of dysphagia
Oral dysphagia: trouble chewing due to missing teeth or weakness of the jaw, lips, cheeks, or tongue
Pharyngeal dysphagia: trouble protecting airway when swallowing
Oropharyngeal dysphagia: combination

3. Why dysphagia diets matter
Help patients chew and swallow food safely
Helps to prevent:
Aspiration: food, liquid, or saliva entering our airway(lungs)
Aspiration Pneumonia: Lung infection caused by fluid in the lungs
Dehydration
Malnutrition

4. When are dysphagia diets needed?
Speech and Language Pathologist can do a swallow evaluation to determine if diet changes are needed.
Example swallow evaluation

5. Thickened Liquids Good for patients who have trouble swallowing
Stays together and moves slower than thin liquids
Thin: water, milk, fruit juice, broth
Nectar-Thick: pourable and runs readily from a spoon (cream soups and buttermilk)
Honey Thick: beads when poured from a spoon and usually requires a thickener (honey, tomato sauce)
Pudding Thick: keeps form when spooned or put in a bowl and usually requires a thickener (pudding, custard, yogurt)
NOTE: Jell-O, ice cream, fruit ice, and creamer cannot be thickened!

6. Dysphagia Diets: Pureed
Good for patients with no teeth, no gag reflex, mouth surgery, stroke, head trauma, or dementia
Foods do not need to be chewed and have a smooth, pudding-like texture

7. Pureed Diet: Foods to Avoid
Whole breads, rolls, muffins
Desserts with nuts, seeds, dried fruits
Fruits with skins and seeds that cannot be blended to a smooth texture
Meats that cannot be blended smoothly, peanut butter
Raw vegetables that cannot be blended smoothly, vegetables with seeds, fibers, skin
Fried, crisp potatoes, potato chips
Pepper, nuts, seeds, popcorn, pickles, olives, jam, preserves
Dry cereal

8. Dysphagia Diets: Mechanical Soft
Good for patients with trouble chewing or swallowing, recent intubation, chemotherapy or surgery to the head or mouth.
Diced, minced, and ground food that is easily chewed; moistened
Diced: 1/8” – 1/4” Ground/Minced: 1/8” or less
Chopped: 1/4” – 1/2”

9. Mechanical Soft diet: Foods to Avoid
Dry or tough meats, hot dogs, bacon, sausage, beef tips, peanut butter, cheese cubes/slices, fried/hard cooked eggs, nuts and seeds
Bread products, buns, bagels, rolls, pizza, rice, granola, crispy/fried foods, popcorn, crackers, chips
Fresh or frozen fruit, dried fruits, pineapple, oranges
Raw vegetables, salads, corn, peas, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, asparagus
Soups with chunks larger than 1/2 inch
Hard cookies/candy, gum, chewy candy/desserts
Olives, pickles

10. Dysphagia Diet: Mechanical Advanced
Good for patients moving to a regular diet, good teeth and chewing ability, can handle mixed textures
Moist, bite-sized foods that are not too hard, sticky, or crunchy
Similar to mechanical soft but with addition of soft breads, soft pasta, and moist rice

11. Mechanical Advanced: Foods to Avoid
Dry or tough meats, fish with bones, peanut butter, nuts and seeds
Bagels, dry bread, toast, crackers, course/dry cereal, granola, French bread/baguette, crispy/fried foods, popcorn, chips
Apples, pears, grapes, raisins, pineapple, oranges, coconut
Raw vegetables, salads, corn, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, crisp fried potatoes, potato skins
Soups with tough meats, corn, or clam chowder, pieces bigger than 1”
Hard cookies/candy, gum, chewy candy/desserts
Olives, pickles

12. Questions?

13. Quiz Time!