My toddler was just diagnosed with silent aspiration. We have to thicken drinks to honey consistancy. Can anyone give me advice on what foods are safe to feed him or what foods we should stay away from.

Judy - posted on 10/15/2011

Thank you! My ped thinks my baby may have reflux and possibly poor swallow so he said we should consider a swallow test. I've been on the fence bc it involves an x ray but you know he does get congested all the time esp when he's lying down to sleep. May be worth the risk of radiation to do this test then?

Erika - posted on 10/15/2011

Hi Judy, in our case we had no signs such as coughing or choking during feedings, the only sign we had was that she was always a bit congested all the time and a bit wheezy (but both are not specific symptoms, but after we got the aspiration under control these symptoms disappered). My girl had the silent kind. Everything came to the surface and aspiration was diagnosed after she got pneumonia and just did not get better after weeks (8) in the hospital.
In our case there were some risk factors that now after the fact, I wish the doctors had taken seriously and watched more closely for silent aspiration. Maybe we could have avoided the situation that we are in now (lungs damaged and she needs oxygen to sleep and whenever she gets sick). These were our issues that
contributed to the aspiration in our case:
-prematurity and low birth weight
-poor feeding skills (weak suck and high palate)
-uncontrolled reflux

I hope your ped takes the situation seriously, as silent aspiration can have some knock on effects.

I hope you get the answers you need.

Judy - posted on 10/13/2011

Are there signs of aspiration? I know there won't be any in the silent kind but otherwise? Pedi is thinking of having my 8 month old get a swallow test because he gets gurgly after meals sometimes. He gags easily and sometimes vomits.

Jennifer - posted on 09/26/2011

My son was diagnosed with silent aspiration as well, but he aspirated on thickened liquids so he went straight to a feeding tube. I've noticed that he doesn't do well with regular yogurt but does very well with the greek yogurts because they're thicker.

Maria - posted on 09/21/2011

Maybe you should ask for an appointment to a feeding clinic; they have a team that will evaluate your child and can best help. We get therapy from an occupational therapist (through our local early intervention program) who gives us feeding advice and brings different feeding tools to use. Hope it goes ok for you both!

Renee - posted on 09/20/2011

Thank you Candi, you are so right. We just signed up with the nutritionist which I am hoping will help. Thanks again!!

Renee - posted on 09/20/2011

Thank you Erika.

Candi - posted on 09/20/2011

Do you have a nutritionist? You should be seeing a nutrition therapist who will help guide you to some of the safer things to eat and drink. If he only aspirates thin liquids, then there are many foods that he can eat safely. In fact, only thin liquids (such as milk, juice, water) are out. However, this is really a question that a nutrition therapist needs to answer. I would hate for you to give your son something that would genuinely harm him because those of us on here don't know the results of the cookie swallow! My son also aspirates, and we still do feeding and occupational therapy to help him safely eat and drink. Good luck! He'll be just fine! It seems overwhelming now, but know that it won't always be so.

Erika - posted on 09/20/2011

Hello there, my daughter has been on thickened liquids since 2 months of age (at first we were thickening due to reflux issues). Then we found out that even with the thickening she was aspirating (both while drinking and refluxing). So now she's had a PEG tube placed through which we give all fluids (thickened of course), as to eliminate aspiration from fluids altogether. It's working wonderfully by the way. She is allowed to eat everything, since her silent aspiration was happening when drinking from the bottle. Eating semi-solid food though is a different mechanism than drinking, so she's been doing great. She eats anything pureed (has trouble with chewing and things with chunks). I take her meals and blenderize them, if it is too thin, I add some thickener. I guess it is probably a bit individual as to what will work for your child, taking his/her development and eating skills into consideration. I hope the thickening does the trick for you!

Renee - posted on 09/15/2011

Thank you so much Rochell. I can't imagine my oldest would be very cooperative either!! :) That's great you found an alternative, that's interesting that he can tolerate liquids through a coffee straw!!

Rochell - posted on 09/15/2011

My son also has been put on thickened liquids, foods... but at 8 years old, he is very uncooperative. We went to a feeding therapist who said to allow him to drink regular stuff, but get coffee straws so he does not gulp. As for the foods.. the only problem my son has with food, is pasta. Any kind of pasta he can not tolerate and has a very difficult time eating. (spaghetti, mac n cheese, noodles, ramen noodles, lasagna, etc.) Good luck!