What to do when the person can no longer swallow and coughs when given puree food or liquids with thickener?

The muscles in the mouth and throat harden. He can't get the food and saliva to the back of his throat, so he coughs and chokes. Speech therapy can strengthen the muscles, and teach your Dad how to swallow. When the coughing and choking happens to my Dad, I remind him to tilt his chin up,or i gently do it. It stops the coughing cold.

Hospice sounds like a good idea.

I'm sorry you're having to deal with this. In my opinion, I definitely would contact his doctor and and see about getting him on hospice. His body is shutting down. They can help you keep him more comfortable as he makes this decline. Our area had a hospice that had a facility similar to a hospital, but much nicer with 24 hour care just for this. Visitors can come anytime, day or night, and the nurses were always up-to-date on their progress. You may want to see if there is a hospice in your area like this. ((HUGS))

See if they can adjust meds at all to allow him better function. If not, you could keep him alive with a feeding tube, or decide to jus let him take what he can and inquire about hospice. Sorry it is all trending downhill so fast. Meds may help a lot, at least for a little while....

My mom did that for a while the nurses called it "pouching" I would think it means the body is slowing down. Sorry you need to deal with all this... but you do what you can... Tkae care...Mara