Category: Education
-
Fear of Swallowing: Understanding Anxiety at Mealtimes
Fear-based swallowing difficulties don’t appear out of nowhere. They’re learned. Maybe anxiety heightened your focus on the mechanics of eating, making every movement in your throat feel unnatural, exaggerated, or risky. Maybe you’ve started avoiding certain foods, textures, or entire meals just to sidestep the anxiety. If any of this sounds familiar, know that you’re…
-
Pregelled Breads: A Key Technique for Safer Eating with Dysphagia
Bread is one of the most common comfort foods in the world, but it’s also one of the trickiest for people with swallowing or chewing difficulties. On its own, bread tends to crumble, stick, or form dry lumps that can be unsafe. That’s where the pregelled bread technique comes in. Pregelling transforms bread into a…
-
What Is Dysphagia or Difficulty Swallowing?
Swallowing is something most of us take for granted, until it doesn’t feel easy anymore. For some people, eating can shift from an automatic, enjoyable part of the day into something that feels uncertain, uncomfortable, or even exhausting. The medical term for this is dysphagia, which simply means “difficulty swallowing.” As both a speech-language pathologist…
-
Comfort Foods Without Surprises: Meals for Texture Sensitive Eaters
Have you ever pushed aside a dish because it felt off in your mouth? Maybe it was too stringy, lumpy, or unpredictable; you’re not alone. For many people, food isn’t just about flavor. Texture can make or break a meal. Sometimes it’s sensory sensitivity, sometimes it’s about comfort, and sometimes it’s just what feels easiest…
-
Safe Texture Finder
There is no such thing as too much urgency when it comes to seeking assistance with difficulty with chewing and swallowing. However, some don’t see a speech-language pathologist (SLP) until weeks after symptoms begin. These weeks, no doubt, feel magnitudes longer, as the concern rarely stops when standing up from the table. I want to…
-
What are IDDSI levels and how can they help with managing dysphagia?
Most people don’t think twice about swallowing until something goes wrong. Maybe you had food “go down the wrong way,” or suddenly felt like a bite of food was stuck. That moment can be scary and it can leave you wondering what’s happening and what you should do next. For some, it’s a one-off event.…