You don’t need to clean the PEG tube. What you should do is to put in a syringe worth of water at the end of each feeding. That’s hydration as well as rinsing for the PEG. It is, however, important to clean the insertion site. Dab it with a wet piece of gauze and then put cream on it and a dressing to cover it. Don’t rub it because it will cause granulation which is very painful for the patient.

Our RO said even if the patient does just dry swallows, it will help the muscles. I am not sure about the need to swallowing food of different textures. I would think if the food is all chewed up, the texture won’t matter. There is difference, however, between swallowing food of different thickness, for example, water, nectar, honey and pudding are words used to signify the different grades of thickness of what the patient is swallowing.

The swallowing test is used to determine how well the swallowing process works in the patient, is there any narrowing of the esophagus or if there's aspiration. They do give it to patients with a PEG tube because they sometimes need to ascertain if a patient can swallow properly because they remove the PEG.