Food and Fluid Terminology (IDDSI)
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St George’s University Hospitals are updating the terminology used when making diet & fluid recommendations for people with dysphagia (difficulties swallowing). We will be using the IDDSI framework.
See below information on IDDSI and details of food/fluid recommendations.
What is the IDDSI framework?
The International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative (IDDSI) have published new international standardised terminology and definitions to describe diet and fluid texture modification.
The framework consists of a continuum of eight levels (0-7) identified by text labels, numbers and colour codes to improve safety and identification.
Why do we need to change our current practice?
St George’s has adopted the framework in line with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and the British Dietetics Association guidance, in addition to catering and thickener providers plans to also move to this framework.
In a recent straw poll of the St George’s Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) service it was identified that there were inconsistencies in recommendation terminology, with Speech and Language Therapists reporting between 1 and 5 different phrases used to describe the same consistency.
All information & images have been developed by IDDSI (www.iddsi.org)
