Tell me about swallowing test

[peaceful_mama]

Babe is scheduled for a swallow study early Mon. morning.  He is barely taking solids at 9 months despite plenty of offering and opportunity--if anything, his willingness to take has decreased.  He was born with imperforate anus, so I suppose there's a possibility something else is wrong somewhere along the way.  His tummy rumbles...loudly...unlike anything i have ever heard, and this is my 4th.  I don't recall hearing that before he started solids.

What's this test going to be?  How long?  Will they put him under?  What are they doing to my boy and what's going to happen from here?  like if there is something, will we not even leave, they'll just admit and we'll see his surgeon again??

[mamandedeux]

We've had a bunch of barium swallow tests over the last few years (I'm assuming this is what your DS will be doing). The only tricky thing was getting DS1 to drink the stuff they needed him to have in his eosophagus for the xray. It had to be bottle-fed to him, and he didn't take a bottle, so it took a long time. At 6 weeks (first test), I just stood next to him while the team did the test, at 8 months and 12 months (2nd and 3rd tests) I had to ''assist'' by holding his head and talking him through it. At 4.5, I just held his hand. The test took about 30 minutes. They had him drink the barium, then he had to lie down under the scanner. At the last one, they asked him to shift around a few times. He actually liked it and was compliant.

Good luck!

[Buzzer Beater]

We had one done around the same age as your babe, and honestly, it was no fun. We we weren't allowed to nurse her after midnight, and in the morning we had to try to make a cranky baby drink paste out of a bottle. They asked when we walked in "Is she a bottle girl or a sippy cup girl?" and when I said she's breast fed they didn't know what to do, but started with the bottle and moved on to the cup. We essentially had to force feed her the barium, which she was gulping so she wouldn't choke, then hold her down and still for the xray. It really sucked. The whole thing took about half an hour. Luckily nothing was "wrong". She's still lagging behind on solids, really didn't want anything to do with them until well after a year old.

I hope everything turns out well for you.

[heatherdeg]

I'm thinking this is a barium swallow, too.  Mine had one at 13mo when he still wasn't eating solids (or rather, BARELY eating solids and choking when he did).  Bring some Puffs (do they make a healthy version of this now?) because not likely they'll have them and it would be good for them to dip in the barium liquid to see if they can capture him trying to eat it.

Of course, when we went, they didn't want to do the solid foods because "they make him choke".  THAT'S. WHY. WE'RE. HERE. A-HOLE!     (sorry... I have years of posts here and have never written that, but it was the most appropriate thing for the sentiment)

And ours was pretty brief.  Not fun because they want your kid to do stuff they're not really interested in, but mercifully brief.

[crunchy_mommy]

I have done a barium swallow myself (not my DS) so I just wanted to pipe in to say it was a painless procedure... drinking the barium was so gross though, I couldn't even finish, so that will be your big challenge I think. I drank mine with a straw so that's another option if bottles or sippy cups won't work for your baby... maybe you could bring along his favorite cup/bottle?

I wasn't put under and I remember my mom was in the room with me most or all of the time during the procedure. I don't know if they'd sedate a young baby maybe? I doubt they'd admit you & send him straight to the surgeon unless they found an immediately life-threatening problem...

I would find out if he will be awake for the procedure, and if so, bring some books or something. When we brought DS in for a test recently, the books were a Godsend, helped him stay still & calm & entertained the whole time (I guess usually they need to hold kids down for the test he was having -- not a barium swallow though!)

Good luck!