No Saliva for Papa

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grandgirl
grandgirl Member Posts: 1
edited March 2014 in Head and Neck Cancer #1
After treatment for cnacer, my grnadfather can not produce any saliva. He has lost a ton of weight but it doing ok. For christmas i bought him a cookbook (well sort of) for pureed food. However, even pureed food is a little too thick. He mostly eats broth, ensure, and milkshakes. He even has to wash down the ensure with water so things have to be very liquidy for him to get them down. However, i would love to give him some more options in tems of food, nutriton and gaining weight. Does anyone know of any cookbooks that would be suitable for me to get him. I would appriciate any info you you supply.

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  • jusquirt
    jusquirt Member Posts: 3
    #2
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    The no saliva is so familiar. How long has it been since he had the cancer treatment? If it is only weeks or a few months that is normal.
    I had to live on Boost for almost 10 months before I could find the foods that I could eat....and I did drink (almost) the other food I ate.
    A blender or a machine that makes smoothies (I can't remember what it is called..or yes a food processor...) will get all kinds of food to the consistancy that he can eat.

    Does he still have his own teeth or did he need dentures? That too will make a difference in what and how he eats.

    Most of this is trial and error.. Just keep trying until he (and you) find what he can eat.

    I lived so long on mashed potato's and gravy that I have trouble eating potato's now.. I am still learning what I can eat and most foods that have white flour in it or is extra sweet or chocolate... I had a very sweet tooth...and chocolate was my choice everytime...and I had to teach myself that there are other foods out there..but I did waste a lot of food finding what I could eat.

    The hardest thing is learning to have patience and knowing that the taste buds can come back, but the saliva may not..it depends on how much radation was given and where the cancer was.

    Good luck and take each day at a time....don't get in a hurry..altho that is human nature..espiecally a man's...LOL...couldn't resist... but it is do-able.
    Hugs and God bless, Judy
  • SASH
    SASH Member Posts: 421 Member
    #3
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    Here is a cookbook written by 2 swallowing specialists. It is called, "Easy-to-Swallow, Easy-to-Chew Cookbook" and can be found at Amazon. I found some of the recipes very good and they even show the nutritional information for each serving.

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