Losing the Ability to Swallow: How to Help Someone With Dysphagia

Coping with an ill loved one’s difficulty swallowing can be frustrating and frightening for everyone involved. Caring for someone we love means nurturing and nourishing them, but when the ability to offer pleasure through food is taken away, caregivers may end up feeling defeated.

Of course, that’s illogical, but when our best efforts result in an elder coughing or gagging, it’s hard to feel good about the care we provide. What we need to understand is that this is not our fault. Many diseases can cause swallowing issues. As caregivers, all we can do is learn as much as we can about our loved ones’ conditions and cope as well as we can.

Hospice personnel often work with patients who have dysphagia. Antoinette Ryba, RN, a patient advocate, care manager, and health coach with nearly a decade of hospice experience offers caregivers suggestions for recognizing symptoms of dysphagia and helping a senior eat safely.

What Is Dysphagia?

Difficulty swallowing is clinically known as dysphagia and occurs when one’s esophagus does not function properly. When a person with dysphagia eats or drinks, they cannot swallow correctly. This swallowing disorder causes discomfort, coughing, choking and even aspiration of food particles and saliva into the lungs, which can lead to a serious, potentially life-threatening infection.

What Causes Dysphagia?

Ryba explains that difficulty swallowing can occur for a variety of reasons, including multiple sclerosis (MS), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease (PD), stroke, and…

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