My child has been referred for a swallow x-ray (videofluoroscopy swallow study). What is this and what happens?
A videofluoroscopy swallow study (VFSS) also sometimes called a dysphagia barium swallow, is an x-ray of your child eating or drinking. It shows what happens to food and drink when a child swallows and helps the SLT identify any problems which are hard to see from just watching a meal. You will be asked to bring food and/or drink which your child normally eats and to feed your child as the x-ray is taken. The food will have barium liquid or powder added so that the food shows up on the x-ray screen. There are no internal or invasive procedures. The VFSS is recorded onto a videotape which the SLT can review with you to explain what happens when we swallow and whether there are risks for your child swallowing such food and/or drink going the wrong way’ i.e. through the airway and into the lungs rather than the stomach.
