have you ever heard of making a child swallow meat tenderisor for meat lodged in the back of throat
I care for a diabled child with cp, he recently had surgery for GERD. He was placed on a liquid diet and his physcian has now stated he can resume normal food intake with thickened liquids. The physcian told the mom that it is possible for meat to become lodged in the back of the throat and she would know this has occured because after a couple of days there would be a smell. He advised her to give her son meat tenderiser and it would break the meat down. I have never heard of anything like this and am curious if this is common practice.
Hello!
I am not a doctor but I will try to answer your question from my experiences as a mom. My daughter had the surgery for GERD a few years ago and eating after the surgery was very slow and steady. She started with a liquid diet, then a pureed diet. The doctor told me that the surgery makes the opening between the esophagus (food tube) and stomach tighter AND the entire area is swollen from the surgery. So the liquid and pureed food needs to slide through this tender and smaller opening. As the area heals and becomes less swollen, we added soft food like banana and lumpy food like oatmeal. Again, slow and steady. Finally, she was able to eat chopped and well chewed table food, including meat. She did have some terrible choking episodes where the food became trapped in the esophagus and couldn't get into the stomach. She retched until it came back up again. This was her way of knowing that careful chewing and tiny nibbles of food were needed. Over time, she was able to go to a regular diet.
Now I know the Cerebral Palsy can affect the muscles over the entire body, including the mouth. I wonder if this little guy has some problems with chewing and swallowing. Sometimes there can be aspiration where the food goes into the lungs rather than the stomach. It may be that the surgeon made the wrap at the surgical site tight to prevent aspiration. The surgery, along with eating problems from CP may mean the food can get stuck.
I have never heard of using meat tenderizer so I don't want to say-don't do this. However, if food is stuck in his throat, he will not be able to eat or drink. I imagine it will feel very uncomfortable and he may retch, vomit and cry. I don't know how he would be able to tolerate meat tenderizer while this is going on.
I know that many children with Cerebral Palsy have feeding and swallowing problems. Perhaps a speech therapist or feeding therapist can evaluate his feeding and determine what type of food is safe for him to eat (pureed, chopped, etc). They are very skilled at mixing foods and textures so they can show you how to prepare food that is tasty yet easy to digest. Sometimes the speech therapist and the doctor will coordinate efforts and perform a test called a swallow study to assess the airway and esophagus during eating and drinking.
Good luck and let us know what you find out.
Jan Gambino
The Reflux Mom
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