modified barium swallow

[Anonymous]

I’m nervous my son is 2 months old and they want to do this test on him. Each day he’s gets better and better with his swallowing. Feel like I should cancel the appt for thurs and make it for 4 weeks from now. Also how do you fast at 10 week old baby for 4 hours? Thanx ladies I’m new here!

My son has had swallowing problems since the beginning, I nursed for 2 weeks but had to stop because he fussed on me and I was going insane. He’s onn similac alimentum and now he fusses like 1 or 2 times a day. He coughs and has the hiccups alot but no spit up.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I was worried about the barium swallow test too and it turned out to be a walk in the park. We actually fed our daughter just an ounce or two a couple of hours before the test. She never had a problem taking a bottle so we knew she would eat just fine. That’s all they’re really getting at with the fasting… they want to make sure that your son is hungry enough to drink enough of the barium solution. And he only has to take an ounce or two. I was worried about her having to be strapped down but she didn’t fuss one bit. In fact she kept smiling at the nurse! I guess my daughter likes being tied down. For us the whole test only took about 10 minutes. Once they had seen everything they needed to the nurse took the bottle away and said she had drank 2 ounces. Well, when we took her out of the little straight jackety thing we could see the mixture had leaked out of her mouth and all down her neck. So she didn’t even take in that much and they were able to see everything fine. I guess what I’m getting at is that if you’re son is going crazy because he’s hungry you could probably give him a small bottle, just to take the edge off, and he’ll still eat enough of the barium so the doctor can see what’s what.

It sounds like your son might have silent reflux (reflux without the spitting). That’s what Tess has. I will warn you that the barium swallow will not necessarily diagnose reflux. It’s used to determine if there are any physical abnormalities along the upper digestive tract. If he has reflux and happens to have a reflux episode during the test this will show up but it may be that he doesn’t have an episode while the doctor is looking. There are other tests to determine reflux and its severity. I hope you get some answers. It sounds like things have improved a lot just with the formula change. Good luck!

Karen

[hellbennt]

First of all, welcome!

please find the time to read my welcome/intro as it will help you- you’ll want to bookmark it so you can refer to it as you go along this reflux journey: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853&am p;PN=1&TPN=1

Next: (thanks lori & sarah for the following info!)

Karen (& angelgee333):

modified barium swallow:to see if baby is aspirating on her/his feeds. baby is given bottles with the barium in them. Each bottle has a different consistancy. They start with a waterlike one, then formula, nector, and honey, which is like babyfood. After the test probably later in the afternoon, expect alot of poop that is white from the baruim.

Upper GI: also called barium swallow (& maybe even called milk scan?)

This is where they look for structural abnormalities, etc…

[Anonymous]

Hello & Welcome! I know it may be hard to not feed ur baby for 4 hours cuz my daughter had to get an upper gi done at 4 weeks and i could not feed her for 4 hours.The only thing i can suggest is to use a pacifier and hold ur baby unil the test.My daughter does not take a pacifier so all i did was hold & roch her.It really did not do much justice cuz when shes hungry -shes hungry.i felt bad but after the test they tell u that u can feed them.So have that bottle ready.Dont be scared about the test the just lay them down and have them drink the barum.that all. its not bad at all. oh! do read Lauras packet its very helpful.

[Anonymous]

Thanx ladies! I actually determined with the help of my peditrician that we could wait till he’s 3 months old to do the test because things are getting better so I’ll deal for a couple of more weeks.

[Author]

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