Dysphagia Management Focuses on Maintaining Adequate Nutritional Intake for Patient and on Maximizing Airway Protection
Speech-language pathologists have provided dysphagia management for children in medical settings for many years in the U.S. The goals of the management are to maintain adequate nutritional intake for the patient and to maximize airway protection. Dysphagia is difficulty swallowing. It's typically a sign of an issue with the esophagus or throat. Although dysphagia could occur to anyone, it's most common among older adults, infants, and those with weak muscles of the jaw or brain. That said, dysphagia could also be a side effect to some medications or cancer treatments, especially when they cause inflammation of the throat. Many theories exist as to what causes dysphagia, but doctors have isolated certain foods that seem to trigger or worsen the problem. These foods include some spices (such as pepper), tomato, certain citrus fruits (mainly oranges and grapefruit), eggplant, milk, chocolate, yeast and caffeine-based products. In addition, certain foods seem to slow down or in