As you know I am a hospice patient visitor. Wish I had known this in time to help my husband. Learned a fantastic tip by a hospice nurse who learned about it from a speech pathologist. When the end is near and the patient chokes on everything either atropine or a scopolamine patch is used to dry secretions. The down side is extreme thirst that all the mouth swabs in the world won't help. Thicken something like lemonade as much as possible with thicket, put some on a spoon and put the whole thing in the freezer. When offered to the LO it feels wonderful and melts very slowly so they won't choke.
bluedaze, Thank you so very much for the suggestion. My husband is having problems with so much mucus that he is wearing the scopolamine patch....I will definitely remember this tip....he loved lemonade.
I wish I had known this when my husband's niece was dying. I wanted so much to help. Thank you bluedaze and please post anything else you learn from working with Hospice.
thanks so much for this information. My dh is beginning to have a lot of mucus in his throat. Ocassionally he will choke and you hear the fluid and this scares me.
Nora, this would have come in handy with my Uncle this summer. But I am wondering how you offer it to them? Do you try to place the spoon in their mouth? I don't think I could have opened my Uncle's mouth enough, or that he would have been aware enough to suck it. I suppose one could break it off into chips? Great idea and I look forward to hearing more of your tips ♥