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[Dysphagia] Drooling
I agree with Suzanne. You only have to look at the baby section of any
store to find the marketing/labeling that would lead parents to think
that a particular nipple, bottle, cup etc is the best for their babies
or going to fix particular problems (gas is a big one). We must be
careful, ourselves, when looking not only at regular infant/toddler
utensils and equipment but also at "therapy" or "adaptive" equipment.
The adaptive equipment and therapy items are many times made by the same
companies who have the same MARKETING departments and strategies.
As a parent, I understand the desire to have an "easy" fix for a
difficulty, "the right nipple, the right bottle etc." The Marketing
plays into that. We need to be careful consumers and encourage parents
to be careful consumers also.
A careful assessment is with attempts to find out why (sometimes not
possible) is the basis for treatment and choice of equipment. Sometimes
it is not possible for us to do anything until the medical issues are
resolved. For example, large tonsils and adenoids leading to nasal
obstruction, therefore, the child mouth breaths and is drooling. The
airway issues need to be resolved before any treatment we offer will be
helpful.
Scott
Scott Dailey, MA, CCC-SLP
Department of Otolaryngology
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
-----Original Message-----
From: dysphagia-bounces at dysphagia.com
[mailto:dysphagia-bounces at dysphagia.com] On Behalf Of Suzanne Morris
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2007 12:16
To: dysphagia at b9.com
Subject: Re: [Dysphagia] Drooling
Equipment does not change oral motor patterns such as drooling. You
have to know, for example, why the individual is drooling (There are
a ton of different reasons). Then you have to know what treatment
strategies specifically address the problem and the changes you want
to make. Then you must have an idea of what type of equipment (if it
exists) could help you and your client reach your goals more
effectively or efficiently. Finally, you search to find the
equipment that meets your needs. Asking whether something like a
tongue scraper (or any other piece of equipment) would help drooling
is putting it all backwards. Somehow we've gotten the idea that our
treatment is the equipment. I can't tell you how many families I
have worked with who have the most complete collection of spoons,
cups, nipples etc. available and nothing "works". This simply
reflects the belief that the equipment will resolve the problem. A
piece of equipment is only valuable when it is appropriately targeted
as a partner in a treatment program that makes sense in addressing
the underlying components of the problem.
Suzanne
__________________________________
Suzanne Evans Morris, Ph.D.
Speech-Language Pathologist
New Visions
1124 Roberts Mountain Rd.
Faber, VA 22938
(434) 361-2285 ext. 5
www.new-vis.com
On Sep 4, 2007, at 8:57 PM, melissa zilberstein wrote:
I looke dover the Ark products. Is it the tongue scraper that you are
referring to?
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