Swallow Study

Thursday was Verity's last appointment for the week, a swallow study to evaluate whether she is ready for/capable of eating orally. She wasn't allowed to eat anything for 3 hours beforehand, so we adjusted her feeding schedule accordingly. Since the appointment was in the morning, she was still pretty sleepy (she does her best sleeping after we wake up for the day!!). In fact, it was kind of hard to get her to wake up enough to feed well enough for the doctor and therapists to see much!

We started by using a tiny syringe to squirt a special liquid in her mouth with barium (I think?!) to make it show up on the X-ray. Once they were able to view her swallowing from the contents of the syringe, they moved to a bottle. I think she would have done better with this if she had been more awake, but at least the main encouragement was certain: there is nothing structurally that would prevent Verity from having oral feeds. This is definitely good news and encourages us to take the next steps and work hard to make sure she doesn't end up having oral aversions, as many Trisomy kiddos experience.

Can you see Verity's feeding tube?!
Her nose is pointing toward the left.

So, our plan for now is to start feeding her with the little syringe (1ml) about 10 minutes before normal feeding time. We will give her however much she will take until feeding time, and then do the rest via her feeding pump (currently using the NG, or tube through her nose, but planning to move to a G-tube which will feed the stomach directly). So far 3ml seems to be about her limit, but the good news is that she really enjoys it, though she has started to sputter a bit and not do quite as well toward the end, so it has been pretty clear when we need to move on. The nice thing about this transitional step is that we can involve the older kids, too!

I am also encouraged to continue attempts at breastfeeding, although I'm not terribly optimistic about this as she hasn't latched at all since before we left the hospital. We also have a preemie nipple we can use when we think she might be ready to try a bottle. She continues to suck well on her pacifier (though we have to hold it in her mouth).

I confess I am excited to get rid of the feeding tube; it is awkward and of course always keeps us on our toes trying to make sure it doesn't get dislodged. But I am equally excited about the opportunity to have some normalcy with feeding times! As Verity grows stronger and more alert, we look forward to feeding her in a manner more similar to her older siblings.