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Home › Articles › Toddler Health › Dysphagia

Dysphagia

A Hard Problem to Swallow

By Mary Dixon Weidler

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"We teach strategies to help the patients compensate," Reville says. "Some kids simply have to tuck their chin or follow each bite with some fluid. Others have restricted diets, but as they age they are weaned from that while they are learning to compensate."

And the extreme? "I met one little boy who could not swallow water for some reason," Reville says. "He kept getting pneumonia, although at 18 months he seemed to be able to handle soft foods. Our strategy for this case, which is extremely rare, was to make gelatin jigglers with all his water. He had to take water like this for two years, but he eventually learned to compensate for dysphagia and now can drink water regularly."

There was a happy ending for Mary Hunnicutt, too. "After her swallow study, we learned how to make her foods more even textured, since her swallow reacted to the differences," Mary's mom says. "It took 18 months, but now she can eat most foods, as long as she remembers to sip water afterwards."

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