Jobeeg,

As Erik points out, eating is no different than any other physical therapy to regain muscle control. Not trying is synonymous to "use it or lose it". I eat a lot of spaghetti noodles and could even tolerate Ragu and stuff like that even though it is acidic. I struggled with Cream of Wheat, oatmeal, etc., and coughed and choked. I drank a lot of whole milk because it was thicker and because it had a bit more calories. It took about a year before I could drink more than a sip of anything and now can pretty much gulp several times. I cook my steaks more rare because they are a bit easier to swallow and yesterday I ate some pretty dry fried chicken with a little difficulty until I could gulp down some water.

Another thing I learned that helped was to take a good breath before I tried to swallow. I then closed off my airway until the food was completely down. At first, it would get stuck in my throat and I would either gulp for air and start coughing or my body would create a sneeze reflex and it would go across the room.

Tell your mother to keep swallowing stuff just for excercise if nothing else. There are some devices on the website for stretching the mouth muscles.

Ed