Facilitating Pediatric Patients During Videofluoroscopic Swallowing Studies

The videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS) is an instrumental exam for patients with dysphagia. Analysis of images generated during the study leads to diagnosis of swallowing events/physiology and the generation of treatment plans. As critical as the reading of images are to the VFSS, there exist multiple additional considerations for successfully conducting the study with pediatric patients. Due to difficulties inherent in testing infants and children, the pediatric VFSS poses implementation challenges. Speech-language pathologists may facilitate pediatric patients in issues of feeding engagement, crying, volume consumed, bolus size, and method. Facilitative techniques during pediatric VFSS benefit the obtaining of accurate diagnostic results to guide pediatric feeding disorder management and recommendations.