At Connor's Gi appt, The Dr. and I discussed Connor's issue with gagging on food and she suggested another Modified Barrium Swallow. At the time I nodded my head as Connor was squirming all over the place wanting down. Now I'm wondering if it is really needed. He doesn't choke on the food, the food never has a chance to reach his throat because he gags the second it hits his tongue. I'm leaning towards more of a sensory or issue with texture. Do you think we should go ahead and he would benefit from the test? I'm just worried about all the radiation that this kid has already been exposed to. Oh, just to update you on his gagging, he has now been eating purees fine with no gagging but still gags on solids.

I would just stick to the purees for now...maybe continue slowly doing solids for another month and if it doesn't improve I'd go through with it.

I think i would stick to the purees too, this is what we did and it worked, BUT cause I haven't seen him it is kind of hard to say. A lot of kids have this aversion to lumpy foods etc and maybe more finger foods is a better choice instead of purees with lumps KWIM?

Or is he just as bad with finger foods, like cookies etc?

I would do the same but still do the solids just in smaller bites(which you probably do). Zoee would choke on soilds and that is what her Feeding specialist told me to do for her. And If that didn't work then we would have do the swallow again. So that is just a suggestion for Connor.

Thanks girls. I scheduled him for the swallow today but they can't get him in until Oct:yikes: He does fine with purees but won't do solids at all. As soon as a piece of something hits his tongue he gags. He will eat biter bisquits now or I should say suck them. He just won't eat things he has to chew???

Well, since the barium swallow isn't until October, hopefully, Connor will be doing so much better by then that you can cancel it! I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I guess if it were me, I'd go ahead with that test, since it is such a simple one. I hear ya on the radiation, though, so I'd need a good reason for it.

I would keep the oct appt and you can always cancel it if he starts to eat better soon.

Thanks, that's what I'm going to do but I am definetly going to have him evaluated by speech/feeding therapists to see if they can tell me why he's having problems. Hopefully we will be able to get in before October!

I agree with all the others, keep the appt, and feed him the purees, do you every thicken the puree with cereal? Thats what we did with Jayden to get him used to more texture and then after a while we would stick in small bites of solids, he would gag but it was a very slow process and now he eats most solids. He will seperate little pieces of chicken form his food in his mouth and hold them there. After a while he will swollow them with out chewing them??? I say go really slow........

Man...I do not get it. HOW on earth do these medical doctors get away with things not getting scheduled for months when you have a baby. How stupid can they get?Argh.

Anyway, I would keep the appointment. We had a swallow study doen for Mason to check for aspiration, but they found he was not swallowing properly which we did not expect back then.