My father has LBD, he is at the point where he needs to be fed by others and there is a worry of aspiration.

Food was and still is (in his own way) a big deal to him. He loved great restaurants and my mom’s cooking. Now in the hospital he gets the pureed, microwaved stuff, which I only hope tastes better than it smells.

After reading the Comfort Feeding for People with Advanced Dementia article ( http://www.lbda.org/index.cfm?fuseactio ... n=72286960 ) and realizing that the food is for enjoyment more than nutrition I thought this might be a good place to share ideas on foods for comfort eating.

The article has examples of mashed bananas & strawberries. My father’s favorite dish was poached salmon so my mom is going to try and cook it a little long so it gets pasty and feed it to him by the small spoonful. I think there are probably a lot of ideas and ways things can be cooked that have a low risk of aspiration and are better than a puree of turkey.

So share away. I know my dad will appreciate your ideas and I am sure others will do. I'll update how the salmon idea goes.

Ice cream.

PS: And be sure to avoid the kind with any chunks in it. I learned that the hard way. :-\

If you type in "smoothies" in the search area you might see some postings about pureed/soft foods that were discussed fairly recently.
My dad barely eats now, but he will usually eat puddings, applesauce and cold, wet fruit like cantaloupe and watermelon. They seem to do down pretty easily. Lynn

Regarding ice cream: For people with swallowing difficulties and risk of aspiration, especially those on thickened fluids and pureed diets, ice cream can be a hazard. The reason is because ice cream becomes liquid in the mouth and can cause choking in patients with swallowing problems.
My father loves ice cream more than any other food and unfortunately for the last 2 years due to his swallowing problems, we have been told by the speech pathologist to avoid ice cream.

Leone,
I totally agree with you. We should always weigh the risks vs. the benefits. In fact, we only stopped the ice cream when we actually noticed that he would choke and cough a lot with ice cream. You see, Dad has great difficulty swallowing and is probably a lot worse off in that department than your loved one. His fluids have to be thickened to pudding consistency (really really thick) and when they are slightly thinner, he ends up choking.
ss

Whenever liquids are given to my Dad, he immediately chokes on them. Melted ice cream is liquid and so must be avoided. All his liquids are thickened to pudding consistency, even water! You can actually say that he "eats" his liquids.
To substitute for ice cream, we give him very cold puddings. He seems to enjoy those.

Dear Leone,

If Dale is not having major swallowing difficulties, then I think you would still be safe to give him foods that he enjoys. It might be a good idea to have him checked out by a speech therapist (or speech pathologist). They can assess his swallowing ability and can give you good advice.

We had a speech pathologist involved from early on with my Dad, because he developed swallowing problems very early. I remember in the early stages, he could eat everything, but we were told to stay away from foods with mixed textures (such as a think soup with chunks of vegetables) because he could not manage the two textures at the same time in his mouth.

But Dale may never develop these problems. There is a resident at my Dad's facility who is 102 years old with severe tremors in her hands. Yet, she can eat anything and her food is totally normal.

Here's to hope!
SS

I wasn't sure under which topic to put my request but I am having difficullty getting my LO to swallow his meds. Today was the worst ever. He holds them in his mouth and sometimes spits them back into the glass when taking the water. A nurse told me to hold his nose and when he ran out of air he blew the water and pills out like a fountain. The Seniment (Carb/Levo 50/200) is time released and can't be crushed. Any suggestions for me. He is having some difficulty swallowing food as well. He coughs a lot when eating.

You can go from timed release pills to regular ones that can be crushed. They will have to be administered more often, though. Sometimes you can put the pill in pudding or applesauce and they can swallow it that way. I wouldn't hold someones nose closed. Not good.

Nan