Anyone w/MS having issues w/swallowing. Causes? Solutions?

Difficulties when eating, drinking, daily life Accompanied by coughing. Very tiring.

@westwoman3698 I have advanced MS, the nerves and muscles in your throat and tongue the get weak and the Mylon in your nerves in your throat get damaged so you have trouble. Your voice gets bad. It's hard. It gets hard to swallow food. You choke when you drink something it's just really hard. I have that same problem.

@teresasangel Yes I experience all those symptoms. So I resort to only drinking water (but foregoing icy cold water), don’t eat bread or crackers (too dry), eating more soft foods, cooking lots of Asian dishes (ramen, pho, but have to be careful w/rice) can’t manage lettuces except finely chopped iceberg . Are there ways you substitute foods? I’ve lost inordinate amount of weight and physical strength I can only imagine is caused by change in eating habits. Would be interested in hearing if you’ve found way to counter-act that problem. Thanks for your comments.

@westwoman3698
@teresasangel
Would either of you be able to eat a really moist muffin? I don’t have MS, but I do have a demyelinating neuropathy. 11 years ago my chewing and swallowing issues really blew up and I began aspirating everything I ate as I couldn’t control the food and it would slip down my throat before I was ready. I stopped eating and lost 25 pounds in a month — not good. And drier foods get stuck in my throat. I keep my head tipped forward to get help from gravity to avoid aspirating but still have lots of food restrictions. Mostly drank protein drinks for years, no produce as it was not only risky but fatigued my muscles too much. A few months ago I started making healthy muffins and add puréed fruits and veggies in them. It has been working great. I don’t have issues with water if I need to wash anything down. I can’t do liquids and solids together like soup or cereal with milk or I’ll aspirate for sure. I need a bolus. My muffins have freshly milled wheat flour, oat bran, buttermilk, eggs, pure maple syrup (can use honey), mangoes, banana, unsweetened applesauce, black beans, spinach, baking soda, baking powder and salt. I lost my taste and smell 9 years ago after taking a neuro-toxic antibiotic (due to my fragile nerves) so someone who can taste would need to add flavorings like cinnamon, vanilla, maybe orange zest, etc. I had friends try the muffins and they couldn’t tell me any ingredient in them except one friend guessed banana. They were shocked at the ingredients since they couldn’t taste them. They all loved the texture and thought it was a great base to add flavorings. It has been a great way for me to get more balanced nutrition. I can send you a recipe if interested. The oat bran is great for lowering cholesterol too. I can’t take statins because of my neuropathy. I kept them low sweetener as well. I also have the weak vocal cords now like you mentioned.

@californiazebra. I admire your inventiveness! What a clever way to help you get some relief. If you wouldn’t mind sharing your recipe I would be very grateful. Thanks for helping me. Best always.

@westwoman3698
I'll share the recipes soon. AI helped me create it based on my requested ingredients. I was just working with AI to tweak for those who don't use freshly milled flour as it's not a 1 to 1 ratio with store bought flour. AI is specifying certain brands to keep it as soft and moist as freshly milled. Freshly milled is much more nutritious, but a home mill is $300 plus you have to specially order the wheat berries so it's not an inexpensive transition. For someone struggling with a number of eating challenges, getting proper nutrition takes a lot of effort so I started home milling a few months ago. Easy. AI also thinks the oat bran is what has been challenging my digestion, but I didn't like the texture of rolled oat muffins so we're going to use rolled oats pulverized in the blender instead (no store bought oat flour as that is a very different). Recipes coming soon.

@teresasangel Yes I experience all those symptoms. So I resort to only drinking water (but foregoing icy cold water), don’t eat bread or crackers (too dry), eating more soft foods, cooking lots of Asian dishes (ramen, pho, but have to be careful w/rice) can’t manage lettuces except finely chopped iceberg . Are there ways you substitute foods? I’ve lost inordinate amount of weight and physical strength I can only imagine is caused by change in eating habits. Would be interested in hearing if you’ve found way to counter-act that problem. Thanks for your comments.

@westwoman3698 thanks for your info for me. I have to drink ice cold water when my throat feels like it's gonna close and it feels like my tongue swelling. The only thing that opens it is ice cold water and then I don't choke and I can swallow and that'll happen right before. I'm gonna talk on the phone right before I'm gonna take a pill so I now have to take pills with either applesauce or pudding that might help you take your medication. I also like my vegetables like carrots and asparagus and stuff like that El Dante idol I can't eat them raw anymore. They have to be al dente or I don't like them mushy because of the texture, but I do like them al dente because they're soft and I can chew them and then you see to swallow so you can try that also bananas, soft and easy to swallow. I also chocolate milk is easy. it's easy to go down. I've that I've noticed that helps. I also drink Ensure because it's I get the high protein ones so that helps when I get loss of appetite a lot so I hope this helps you right back if you can.