Kid has been in need of powerful food thickening since 1998. ThickIt Concentrate (fka ThickIt 2... still blue lid container). With all the haywire shortages going on - toilet paper, anyone 🙄 - I figured it wouldn't hurt to have a 'back up plan' in case our preferred food thickener became unattainable. I also thought it might be smart to compare the two, as I couldn't find where anyone else had...
Whereas our preferred ThickIt 2 is modified corn starch (whether they modify by processing technique [something about an electrical 'zap'] or enzymes or chemicals, I don't know) Xanthan Gum is some "sugar building blocks fermented blah blah blah". For us, this doesn't matter.
For my purposes, I made 16oz of what I call "Gatorade Jelly" - it makes his beverage the consistency of thick pudding or slightly 'wet' mashed potatoes or sieved jam. Because the TI doesn't keep the liquid bind as a solid in the stomach, it's a good way for us to add fluids. (He NEEDS a GI tube but they won't because he's developmentally delayed and apparently the DD love to yank their GI tubes out daily. I usually put the 2 cups of Gatorade in a quart container with a screw on lid, add the 1/2c TI and shake violently for ≈20 seconds. Thickness is achieved within a minute to 90 seconds max. With the XG, mixing with cold beverage left white chunks. Had to remove to a blender and blend on high 30 seconds to get rid of the white chunks. Thickening was possibly more immediate than with the TI, but thickening didn't seem to stop. I used maybe 2 tbsp of the XG. Because of the costs and volume, the measures can't be compared by my math-challenged brain. The Gatorade with XG got so thick that I had to use a fork to get it to wash down my sink drain using 135°F water.
For us, that's gonna make the XG a Plan B only in the direst of circumstances.
As far as texture, the XG thickened Gatorade was, in all forms of thickness, slimy. Oral tactile sensitivity isn't an issue for us, but it's a nightmare for many.
Hope this helps another caregiver 💛
Xanthan Gum
