Aidan will be seeing a speech therapist that is doing a swallowing test or something like that....
What does this consist of??? What is it anyway????

A swallow study also called a modified barium swallow (MBS) or videofluoroscopic swallow study (VFSS) is very similar to an upper GI series. A radiologist and a speech language pathologist most likely will be present and will videotape the study for further review following the actual study. Barium will be mixed into various foods and drinks. The evaluator may observe the infant or child swallowing various textures of foods and thin liquids and possibly thicker liquids if needed. Most evaluators try to have the feeding be as close as a typical feeding situation so that they can study his typical swallowing pattern, so they may ask you to bring your infant or child’s own bottle, spoon, cup etc. and possibly some of the foods and drinks your infant or child typically has at home. Of course it is nothing like a typical feeding as the child will be in the radiology suite and will have to be positioned upright - possibly in a special seating system that gives them the observers the best view of the swallowing process.

The evaluators will watch the infant or child orally prepare the bolus (the portion of food or drink taken into the mouth) for swallowing - at this stage they are looking to see how well he chews his foods or pools liquid and transfers it to the back of the mouth for swallowing. Then they will look at the pharyngeal phase of swallowing - at this phase they are looking to see how efficiently the bolus passes through the pharynx. They want to make sure the swallow is strong enough to pass the bolus onto the esophagus and to make sure there is no pooling in the several sinus cavities in the pharynx. If this happens the pooled material can later spill out and penetrate the trachea and into the lungs. Some studies follow the bolus through the esophagus and into the stomach but not all do. They will also look at his ability to clear his airway if it is penetrated- if a cough is triggered and clears the airway. They will look to see if his swallow pattern changes over time.


Reprinted from www.reflux.org
Reading Room- Treatments-What is Feeding Therapy?
Pamela Tyler MS CCC SLP

Thanks!!! That helped a lot. Are they upright or lying for this?

What an excellent description! Thank you!

Nice one, Pam! :D

Courtney, it is upright for the test.

That was a great description! My ds2 had it when he was about 2yrs old. I never thought he would do it but he did. We met with the speech therapist first and she watched him eat different types of food. (cruchy, pudding consistentsy, soft, etc) She made sure he was chewing properly and all that.

Then he couldn't eat again until his test that afternoon. By the time he got in there he was starving! They called in a cookie swallow for us. The took different textures of food and coated it with a barium paste or mixed it in and took x-rays as he was chewing swallowing etc. They were ruling out dysphagia and other related things.