Reflux: barium swallow tomorrow & a ques on thickening feeds

Rachel&Joe · September 2009

So, if you read my reflux post below...

We took DD to the Dr. today (we called after a really bad choking/vomiting spell & luckily they were able to get her right in). we described her symptoms to the Dr. (choking during feeds, turning blue, having random choking episodes with spit up during the day, etc.). She said that if she wasn't on O2 with the CLD that she would just recommend putting her at 45 degrees for 20 minutes after each feed, thickening her milk with 1 tsp of rice cereal per ounce & see what happens. But because of the CLD, she recommended a barium swallow & then an appointment with the GI doc to see what's going on for real.

I am not excited about the test tomorrow but if it will give us some answers then I am all for it.

However, I do have a questioning about thickening her feeds: how do you altar the nipples so the food will go through the tiny holes? We tried to make them bigger with a knife but I don't want them to be too big! We are still using the hospital nipples. I think they are the equivalent to a medium flow.

Thanks for your help!

mhenry78 · September 2009

I bought some with a bigger hole in them at Babies R Us when I had to do this! I'm sorry your going thru this and hope you get answers soon!! Good Luck!

lemen99 · September 2009

We recently went through this exactly problem/situation.

At our swallow study, they tried these combinations of things:

regular BM + level 2 Dr. Brown's nipple (what we'd always used)

regular BM + level 1 nipple

Thickened BM + level 2 nipple

Thickened BM + level 3 nipple

As a result of the study, they said he did best with the thickened (with Simply Thick, NOT cereal) BM + level 3 nipple - however when we got home, we found that he couldn't finish a bottle..it was too hard...so then we bought the Y-cut nipples, specifically made for thickened milk, and it's perfect!

I hope you have the same great experience we did!

TriciaJoy · September 2009

the barium swallow isn't so bad. They let me hold Robbie for all of his (he's had 4 for various reasons) and he's done fine with it. The worst part is the diapers the day afterward. Like concrete poop.

I don't have a lot of advice on the nipple cutting, but a question- isn't stella still getting mostly (exclusively even?) breastmilk?

Because the cereal doesn't work to thicken breastmilk. There's an enzyme in breastmilk that breaks down the cereal. It's thick for maybe 5 minutes, then it gets watery again. We had to use thickener (simply thick) instead for that reason.

mek10976 · September 2009

When we thickened DS's feeds, we used the Born Free bottles because they have a variable flow nipple that has levels 1,2, and 3 and we could adjust accordingly by turning the nipple in his mouth a little. It was great for the times when we had to add a little more cereal for the bad reflux and didn't want to buy new nipples. Good luck.

cjb62803 · September 2009

We had a barium swallow earlier this week and after all the attempts, he did the best with the thickened feeds (Simply Thick) and level one vent aire bottle or the preemie nipple on the dr. brown's. The milk is thicker, but not so thick it won't come out of a regular nipple. Good luck with the swallow, keep us posted. You'll be in my thoughts and prayers. (I feel your pain!)