September 06th, 2022

Can people on Modified Diets have food treats?
 
At any celebration - Christmas, Birthdays and Easter, it’s common for us to have food treats like sweets and nuts.  Unfortunately we notice a great increase in choking incidents and chest infections caused by aspiration over holiday seasons, because people forget these treats are food.  
 
Yes, people on modified diets can have treats however they need to be modified in the same ways as their usual foods. 
 
In order to help you keep your clients safe from choking and chest infections our Speech Language Therapists have come up with a few alternatives for you to try.

Pureed diet (smooth and uniform texture)

• chocolate sauce
• flavoured toppings eg caramel, strawberry
• melted chocolate – try adding a little whipped cream to help slow the resetting time
• chocolate mousse

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Minced and Moist diet:  (needs to be very finely cut or mashed).
 
All options suggested for a pureed diet plus:

• finely grated chocolate
• mashed cake or muffin with cream or yoghurt
• trifle, tiramisu (with custard, cream or ice cream)

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Easy to Chew diet: (must be able to be easily and cleanly cut with the side of a fork)
 
All of the options in pureed and minced and minced and moist plus:

• chocolate fudge
• Russian fudge
• some soft centred caramels
• muffins or cake with cream or yoghurt
• softened chocolate (placed in microwave until soft)
• Turkish delight (made with jelly and icing sugar)
• some soft lollies such as ‘bananas’ (test as if left out or shelved too long, they become hard.

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This list is not a complete list; you may come up with some of your own ideas as long as what you’re giving your clients is the correct texture prescribed.

 If you require any assistance, our Speech Language Therapists can help.
 Just contact us:
 
                Phone:       03 377 5280                     Email: admin@tpl.nz