No more thin liquids!

I took Katie to CHOP today to meet with the ENT doctor and the speech pathologist. This was an "emergency" type visit, b/c they were concerned with her last swallow study. They did a test today in which the doc put a scope down her nose into her throat to watch her swallow. They wanted to see exactly what happened when she swallowed and why she was aspirating. Katie did well. She screamed a bit when the tube was going down her nose, however, once in place, she drank like a big girl! :) Apparently, the test showed that when she drinks, she tends to "hold" some of the liquid in some part of her mouth, and then there is spillage into her airway. We do not know why she is doing this, however, it was not done with thickened liquids. We tried a "nectar" type liquid, however, she was still cou ghing and sounding congested on that consistency. So, we moved on to a "honey" type consistency, and amazingly, she did much better. No congested sounding, no coughing. She sounded great. So, I did get a few samples of thickener that I add to her liquids, and I also found some recipes to make that will make a drink a honey consistency. I went shopping tonight to pick up the ingredients and also to CVS to pick up some "powder" thickener. Interestingly, the speech pathologist mentioned that there has been found to be a link between aspiration AND poor weight gain. Katie is my #1 eater-she eats anything and everything, but does not gain weight like she should. According to the speech pathologist, when a child aspirates, their little lungs are working so hard that it increases their metabolism, and then the kids have a hard time gaining weight. This is fascinating to me----I am curious to see how her weight gain improves. :)