Good health begins with eating the right foods in the right amounts. Often a person requires help to eat because of illness or disability. When a person needs help with eating, it is important to protect their safety, independence, and sense of worth.
Who Needs Help Eating?
There are persons who lose the ability to chew, move food around the mouth and swallow food. Difficulty swallowing is called dysphagia.
When this occurs, food collects in the back of the throat and then accidentally goes down the breathing tube (trachea) causing choking. These same persons are also at risk for aspiration pneumonia, a serious infection of the lungs. When you care for a person with dysphagia you must feed them in a way that prevents choking.
When a person needs help with eating, it is important to protect their safety, independence, and sense of worth.