Swallow Study

This week Max had a swallow study with the speech therapist he sees when he goes to the hospital. His swallow study consists of going to radiology with a speech therapist and having Max eat and drink food/milk mixed with barium and an x-ray is taken of him swallowing. The barium makes the food show up on the x-ray. At his last study about six months ago, he was still aspirating on thin liquids (milk, water, etc.), but did fine with pureed consistency foods. At this study, he did not aspirate on thin liquids when we gave him about a half a teaspoon. But when we gave him a teaspoon, he would aspirate a little bit. But, this is still huge news for Max!! Any sign of improvement is huge news for Max!! His swallow with purees even looked better. He was swallowing much quicker than he did at his last study. Our plan is to give Max milk using a baby spoon with each meal and if he remains healthy we will repeat the swallow study in three to four months to see if we can move to a teaspoon at a time (or more). A swallow study is something Max does not enjoy doing. He hates radiology! So as soon as we walk in the room he becomes fussy, which makes the study a little more challenging. It is not like feeding him at home.

I was really happy when we left the appointment! And his first feeding of milk at home went great. He really enjoyed the milk, which I was worried that he wouldn't like.