Striderling's Swallow Study

Striderling had his third swallow study last week (the first was at a large hospital when he was five weeks old and he aspirated on nearly everything, the second was at a local hospital in March where he screamed most of the way through the test and showed absolute zero interest in eating anything). This test was GOOD, though, folks.... very good. There was almost no aspiration in the entire study and the one time it happened, he was upset. Most of us aspirate or choke a bit if we try to eat while crying, so we're not hugely concerned. He couldn't figure out how to get milk out of a sippy cup, but he very eagerly drank straight breastmilk from a nosey cup (I'd never seen one before; they're cute! and functional!). He ate peas and squash, too, although he had a tendency to not finish swallowing all of it.

The therapist wants to review the films some more before our next speech therapy session. Until then, we'll continue with what we've been doing (all nutritional feeding being done through feeding tube, with small tastes of solids occasionally). At that session and the ones after, if I understood her correctly, I think we'll begin to slowly introduce more food via mouth. So excited and encouraged by his progress!