%L discovery1415917
%J Clin Nutr
%K Children, Fluid thickeners, Health, Modified diets, Quality of life
%O ©� 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. All rights reserved. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
%X Background & aims: Fluid thickeners are an important and commonly-used strategy to manage swallowing
difficulties however there are no reports of the perceptions and experiences of parents of children
using thickeners.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews of 14 parents having a child using fluid thickeners due to swallowing
difficulties.
Results: Parents reported improvements in quality of life and health through the use of thickeners. They
also reported persistent difficulties in the use of thickeners.
Conclusions: Results showed unanimous goodwill and positive attitudes towards thickeners and their
observed benefits, tempered by common difficulties with thickeners (variability and unpredictability).
There remains scope for improvements of commercial thickeners and in information conveyed to users.
%N 1
%A CH Smith
%A EM Jebson
%A B Hanson
%V 33
%T Thickened fluids: Investigation of users' experiences and perceptions.
%D 2014
%P 171-174