Dry Mouth/Mouth Pain/Difficulty Swallowing
- Experiment with different textures of foods, making them softer and easier to chew and to swallow. Some soft foods include mashed potatoes, cottage cheese, scrambled eggs, puddings, gelatins.
- Use your blender to puree cooked vegetables, to make soups, smoothies or milk shakes. Use high calorie ingredients such as ice cream, peanut butter, whole milk, yogurt, and fortifying these foods with dry powdered milk or instant breakfast mix.
- To moisten foods, add extra gravy, butter, margarine and sauces or cream soups to the foods.
- Avoid highly fibrous, coarse and rough foods such as raw fruits, vegetables and bran products.
- Avoid very dry foods such as crackers and toast. If you wish to have these foods, soak them in gravy, soup or milk before eating to soften the foods.
- Chilled foods are sometimes tolerated better such as flavored ice, ice-cream, sherbet or sorbet, puddings, yogurt, milkshakes.
- Acidic foods such as tomatoes and citrus fruits such as orange juice or cranberry juice may be bothersome.
- Try sucking on ice chips, popsicles or hard candy, or chew gum.
- Speak to your doctor about numbing agents such as lozenges or sprays or moistening agents such as “artificial saliva” or aloe vera beverages, which can help you to better tolerate meals.
- Sipping liquids throughout your meal may help relieve a dry mouth.
