Maya's swallow study, in the comfort of your home

Ever sit around, wishing that you would get to go to a swallow study? Well, thanks to Dave's quick thinking (with our digital camera) and the magic of youtube, you can attend one right now! These 4 quick videos will show you the whole thing, from beginning to end. Plus, if you're into sciency stuff, they're pretty cool.

(The results, by the way, were totally normal :) No problems with choking or aspirating her food.)

(Oh, and her pediatrician appointment Thursday went well, too. She's 20 lbs now! She went from the 25th percentile in weight to above the 50th percentile, which is quite impressive considering that she won't eat!)

Here, Dana's in the pink lead gown, along with the speech pathologist (behind the little stand thing) and a doctor (who is in the red lead gown). Dave was in the viewing booth with the technician who was snapping the pictures. The screen that Dave zooms up to at the end is where he video'd the rest of the images.



In video #2, you are looking through Maya's head, shot from her left side. So her mouth is towards the left side of your screen, with the back of her skull and esophagus to the right. For the beginning part of the video she is using her tongue to push around a tiny spoonful of peas that have some barium stuff mixed in to make them visible. Then she swallows (at about 9 seconds) and you can see the little bit go down her esophagus.



In #3, to the left, you're watching her lower jaw move up and down as she drinks from the bottle. On the right side, you periodically see the barium-laced milk go quickly down her esophagus as she swallows.



More of the same, with a little bit of hungry Maya crying in the background, and more bottle-drinking near the end.