Swallow study for Toddler

[trales]

What should I expect. DD's doc set it up for next week. We are still looking into reasons she does not chew food, she puts in her mouth and uses her tongue to smoosh against the roof of her mouth. She either swallows whole or regurgitates the food whole. Including green beans that have been in her stomach.

She still does not eat much. But we did have another gain of weight in the last 6 weeks. She is actually on an upward trend rather than a downward one.

They are also setting up some OT to help her learn to chew.

What should I expect from all this. Is this all too much, should we wait and see more, she is finally gaining again. We are up a little over 1 pound from this time last year and she is gaining a lot of height.

I feel very conflicted over the whole thing. We are trying the Zantac again, but my gut says it is not the problem.

I guess this will give more answers and we can go from here. I just have this feeling the swallow study is going to be normal, and she is so stubborn I don't see the OT having much effect.

Thanks.

[Gena]

My son had a swallow study done when he was an infant. he couldn't eat for several hours beforehand and then had to drink a bottle of barium while the radiologist and I watched the video x-ray.

In my son's case it was part of his asthma work-up, but he also had a lot of feeding issues. DS was unable to eat table food until he was about 20 months or so. I remember when he was a year and a half I still had to pack stage 2 baby food when we travelled and the only things he could eat in resturants were applesauce and mashed potatoes.

For DS, the feeding issues were the result of oral apraxia. He could not coordinate the muscles of his mouth, tongue, and lips. As a result he had difficulties with: nursing, bottle feeding, transitioning to solids, sucking a straw, babbling, talking, blowing, imitiating facial expressions, etc.

My son has apraxia in addition to his autism, but many children without autism have apraxia as well. It might be something for you to look into.

[crayonblue]

Carmen had a swallow study. I think she wasn't allowed to eat anything from midnight until the study. Then, she was fed formula at various amounts of thickness. An x-ray or ultrasound (can't remember) was used to see how her tongue was working and where the food was going.

I hope all goes well!

[mom2binsd]

My son had a video swallow (also called Modified Barium Swallow) done at about 13 months...he sat in a chair and the xray machine "video's" the entire process...the SLP selects which type of food to use to coat in barium, which make it show up on the video...we did a number of textures and various thicknesses of liquid...I'm an SLP so it was great to watch...and the SLP should let you watch too and explain things as they are happening...it's pretty cool. From what you are describing I'm guessing it's the same type of study we had done...it's really very quick, simple and not stressful for the child (I send geriatric patients for studies all the time and the most difficult part is getting my patients out of their wheelchairs and into the correct position.)

We had issues with random vomiting, mostly due to excess mucous but also some issue with minor chewing difficulty...after the swallow study showed everything within limits (and then DS vomited up the food I gave him later while we were talking with the SLP...she was like..oh no..that looks more like gastro issues....and then the Gastro guy we saw didn't find anything and then we did Zytec and that plus time helped DS!)

We did not have to fast DS...it was such a small amount of food and liquid he was given although I didn't give him anything for about 2 hours before so he'd be hungry!

Check with the hospital as to what type of swallow study he's having...if it's Modified Barium Swallow (like my DS had) it won't likely involve the fasting like the whole bottle full of barium (usually that's used to look more at where and how the food is going through the digestive tract as opposed to the mouth and actual swallow process).

[trales]

Here is my big question. How do we DD to take the barium? We can't even get her to eat food that tastes good, and never in a situation like this. I can never get her to eat sitting still. This could be a very hard day.

[crayonblue]

Well, Carmen was hungry enough that she downed the barium without any problem. Maybe they flavor it for kids? I don't know but it wasn't a problem.

[Corie]

Tracey,

My son had to drink barium for a different test. I was also
afraid that he wouldn't drink it. I think I remember them telling
me that the barium was flavored. Maybe strawberry? The liquid
was pink. He drank it so fast. They were quite impressed. I think
he was just very hungry.

[mom2binsd]

They have all kinds of ways to make it easy...and the items are just soaked in the barium that is flavored...the barium is what makes the different textures show up on the xray...our son was seated in a kid sized chair with a seatbelt and they held onto him (I was also allowed to hold onto him - just had to put on the lead apron like the others)...they have lots of experience with fussy eaters and little ones who don't like to sit still.

[DrSally]

The apraxia is an interesting possibility. It may be some sort of muscle/motor issue. If that is the case, OT should help. A good assessment is the key. I sure hope you get something that can help.