Hi Laura
does this baby have a history of chest infection?. Was the baby used to taking bottles when the study was performed?. I cannot imagine that a breastfeeding baby would readily take milk from a bottle when offered the first time and how does that impact on the validity of the test.The swallow study would have been done with a bottle. I feel quite strongly about not deducing from a study with a bottle that the baby will be aspirating while breastfeeding.  Sometimes a baby will do better with thickened milk rather than thin fluid because it flows slower and therefore gives the baby more time to do the swallow safely, but there are also strategies that can be tried to slow the flow of the breast milk e.g feeding against gravity. Unless her baby has had some chest infections, she should ask whether she could trial doing that instead. She should ask what risk is there if she does not feed thickened milk. Aspiration is associated with chest infection and pneumonia, but if aspiration occurs when feeding a breastfed baby milk from a bottle it  does not necessarily indicate that the baby is aspirating during breastfeeding.
Loraine
SLT/IBCLC
New Zealand  

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