Early in life, infants rely on a liquid diet of breastmilk or formula to satisfy their nutritional needs. As developmental milestones are achieved, foods with diverse textures are introduced to fulfill nutritional demands. Infants with a variety of medical diagnoses who cannot safely and efficiently transition from a liquid to solid diet may seek intervention from a speech-language pathologist (SLP). When foods cannot be consumed orally, a feeding tube may be used. If an individual is on a liquid diet for an extended period of time, critical periods could be missed which may lead to other difficulties. SLPs often work with clients who need support in transitioning from a solid to a liquid diet. Although two common transition approaches are typically used—a direct transition to solid food and a progressive transition (gradually increasing the texture of food)—there is not sufficient evidence as to which of these are more effective. In our project, we participated in a subset of a larger NIH-CHHD grant, which aims to inform clinical practice by finding evidence behind the two commonly used approaches through the use of an animal model. Three-week-old piglets will be separated into two groups. One group will be directly transitioned from a liquid formula to standard, hard-pellet pig chow. The second group will be transitioned from the liquid formula to increasing textures. Behavioral and physiologic measures will be collected from both groups. In our portion of this study, our team was tasked with developing a systematic approach to altering the foods from a liquid consistency to hard pellets. Our team used the International Dysphagia Diet Standardization Initiative (IDDSI), which categorizes foods into eight consistency levels based on texture and flow properties. IDDSI protocols and testing methods were used to modify piglet food textures. One of the IDDSI tests did have to be adapted due to the nature of the piglet food. Our teams found consistent results within the amount of liquid needed to achieve the desired level and were able to create a conversion chart to be used in the larger study with the piglet feed.
Author(s): Maddie Ranz, Charlotte Cutright, Jessica Arthur, Jillian Flinta
Advisor(s): Donna Scarborough, Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology
Michael Bailey-Van Kuren, Department of Emerging Technology in Business and Design
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