Swallow Study

We went to Children's Memorial Hermann for another swallow study today. They had asked me to keep Lily NPO for at least two hours before the study, which was to take place at 9am. Well, I remembered the last two swallow studies -- Lily does NOT like to drink barium! So I didn't wake her up early to feed her a little bit before we left this morning; she just didn't get anything at all until we started her swallow study. Poor baby girl... She was sooo hungry, but she just didn't want the barium. They started with pudding consistency this time, which was of course no problem at all. Then Lily refused the nectar, and I told the speech pathologist that if she wanted to get any information from this test, we better move on to the thin stuff. Lily took about three swigs of thin liquid. It penetrated the airway with every swallow, and she aspirated at least once. So then we had to get her to drink some nectar consistency, just to be sure that she was still ok with what we're doing now. Lily wasn't very happy about it, but she did take a couple sucks of the nectar, and she did fine.
The speech pathologist recommended continuing nectar and repeating the swallow study in three months. We talked about the trouble with transitioning away from a bottle while using nectar, and she recommended cups with straws. Lily has a Nuby cup with a straw for a spout, but she is more interested in chewing on the silicone straw than drinking from it. She has, however, sipped water from a straw at a restaurant. So I guess we'll keep working on straws with nectar, and stop giving her regular water in her Gerber cup. Even though she seems like she's doing fine with the water in the Gerber cup, we can't tell when she's aspirating because she doesn't cough.
We don't want her to keep drinking from a bottle for too much longer, because she has been developmentally ready for a change for quite awhile now. But, considering all the medical issues Lily could be dealing with right now, this aspirating problem is relatively minor. So we're thankful for the blessing that Lily is able to drink liquids of any consistency, and if it has to be through a bottle, then so be it!