Thickened liquids served from a cup move more slowly than thin liquids, giving your child time to coordinate swallowing skills. Also, for a child with poor swallowing skills, thick, slow-moving drinks can be a lot less scary than thin, runny drinks such as apple juice.

Thickening foods is also an easy way to increase their texture, necessary when you are transitioning your child from smooth, strained, and pureed foods to thickened purees. Introducing more textures encourages the use of more advanced feeding skills.

Thickened foods also are helpful in the treatment of reflux. Used in conjunction with a positioning protocol, thickened foods may help reduce reflux. The extra weight and thickness of the food make it easier to keep down than thin, runny-foods

How to Thicken Foods?
There are many approaches to food thickening, and you may find that your child is more receptive to some than to others. But remember that children's tastes change, so even if your child doesn't like some of these thickeners initially, try them out again a couple weeks later. This encourages more variety of foods and textures.

Here are some techniques to help you get started:

Serve a pureed fruit or vegetable from a cup.
Over time, you can gradually add juice to thin out the consistency' as swallowing skills improve.
Dried infant cereals (or dried baby foods) can be added to drinks or foods.
Yogurt or tofu can be used to thicken liquids.
Sour cream and mayonnaise can help thicken foods.
Add regular or instant pudding mix to thicken drinks.
Add bread crumbs to stews and soups.
Wheat germ and mashed potato flakes add texture while they thicken.
A variety of milkshakes can provide flavorful, thick drinks.
Naturally thick foods can be eaten alone or added to other foods.

Examples include

Applesauce
Mashed banana
Oatmeal
Cream of wheat
Yogurt with small bits of fruit
Mashed potatoes
Refried beans
Commercial thickeners for liquids also are available such as:- Diafoods THICK-IT, THICK-IT 2, and Crescent Frutex.

Other Things to Consider
Thickeners add calories to food. Caloric values range from 5 calories per tablespoon for some pureed vegetables to 27 calories per tablespoon for wheat germ. The addition of calories may or may not be beneficial to your child and may influence your decision about the types of thickeners to use. Your feeding team can advise you further about this. Another consideration when thickening foods is fluid intake. Drinking enough fluids is important to prevent dehydration. Even more fluids are required when using thickeners. This is especially important when using dried infant cereals and foods which bind fluids, making them less available for your child's fluid needs.

A registered dietitian will be able to evaluate the fluid needs of your child and help you with a plan to meet these needs.

References
Therapy Skill Builders, a division of Communication Skill Builders, Inc. / 602-323-7500 / Catalog No. 4332 This page may be reproduced for instructional use. / Feeding and Nutrition for the Child with Special Needs / Klein and Delaney