[Dysphagia] Re: Food and Barium

[andreamoll at sbcglobal.net (Andrea Tobochnik)]

why risk the aspiration of a harmful substance i.e. food, when barium 
alone is sufficient and harmless as well as being the substance used in 
all available research on swallowing?

Almost always, our VFSS patients are eating PO diets, so if we weren't 
giving them food during the study, they'd be in their hospital room or 
at home eating food anyway.  To me, the small amount of food presented 
during the VFSS seems negligible in the greater scheme of things.

Andrea Tobochnik, MS, CCC-SLP
Kalamazoo, MI