Aspiration while feeding?

telfakaye

Hello, i suspect my baby is aspirating when i feed her but i am not sure. She was not fed by mouth until she was 18 days old and once she ate enough bybottle we did a barium swallow study to determine the thickness of liquids she is able to tolerate. The speech therapist present for the study sais she thinks shes safe to eat  unthickened liquids but when she went to review the tape they realized they forgot to put a tape in... :-( we were sent home from the hospital with an ng tubeand instructions to try to feed her by mouth twice a day. When i bottle feed her she cantake about 10 mls but then her breathing sounds "wet" and she will tilt her head back and sound likes shes kind of gasping for air. We called the hospital and they said it could be caused by mucous in her airway bc of the ng tube and to keep an eye on it after a fewmins of the strangebreathing she will sound normal again, or vomit. When she vomits it comes through the nose and mouth and is a thick mucous. It scares me to feed her by mouthniw bc im afraid im doingmore hatm than good. Opinions?

Falioley

Eek, that doesn't sound good. I would try to reschedule another swallow study. How annoying that the tape wasn't in!

mskolman

Isn't the feeding thing so hard? As PP said, I too would schedule another swallow study. We went home on a feeding tube, but I was supposed to try to bottle feed a small amount twice a day. Carter winced and then coughed every time I fed him orally, so with the speech therapists recommendation I stopped. He did feed orally at the hospital (small amounts) but my mama instinct told me something was wrong. We have yet to figure out the problem, but we began with a swallow study.

Good luck! Glad to hear you are home!!!  

Mbitner

I agree with the others.  I would def ask for another swallow study!!!  We have had over 5 swallow studies this past year- I am so thankful we did each of them.  LO's swallowing abilities have continued to change (regression at times.)  Follow your instincts!  GL! 

mackislandbride

Definitely get another study, I know with DiGeorge feeding can be an issue.  Our friend that I mentioned before needed to have thicker things to "eat/drink" like the consistency of honey.  And just an FYI, our friend has a G-tube for most of her nutrition, she's still learning to eat at 17 months old.  She mostly tastes food but doesn't eat enough calories to sustain her life.