Hello
My 15 month old baby, named Ari, with DS will not swallow anything except breast-milk, direct from source. He will pick up food, put it in his mouth, and move it around, but he will not under any circumstances move it to the back of his mouth and/or swallow it. We have been working with a speech and language therapist on the for many months now with no progress whatsoever. He recently had a barium swallowing x-ray to see if his swallowing reflex is functioning and it seems to be fine. The SLT therapist had a meeting with a big group of other therapists (OTs, physios, etc) about Ari and no-one seemed to have any idea what the problem was. The conclusion was that it might be psychological.
We think that it might be something to do with him often having reflux which might have put him off swallowing as his throat is irritated and raw from stomach acid.
Has anybody had any experience similar to this or can possibly shed light on it?
We are desperate now, our beautiful boy needs more nutrition than he is getting from mum's milk, and we really do not want him to end up being tube fed.
Please help us!
Thanks,
Fred, Jez, and baby Ari