2019 Volume 40 Issue 1 Pages 67-71
Objective：In dysphagia during infancy, tube feeding is often selected because congenital disease and immaturity make oral intake difficult. In the development of feeding and swallowing functions, the ability to chew and eat foods is acquired by about one year of age, and therefore to promote the acquisition of feeding and swallowing functions, it is important to provide dysphagia rehabilitation at an early stage. In the present study, we investigated the recent status of dysphagia rehabilitation for infants.
Subjects and methods：The subjects included patients younger than one year of age with dysphagia who consulted our center in fiscal 2015 and 2016. Examination items included disease, age at initial examination, sex, chief complaint, nutrition intake method （at the initial examination and at the outcome）, and outcome.
Results and discussion：The subjects were 77 patients （mean age 5.7±3.1 months, including 47 boys and 30 girls）. Conditions present in a high ratio included heart disease, Down syndrome and neurological disease.
The chief complaints were ‘presence of aspiration’ in the age group from birth up to 4 months, and ‘How to eat baby food?’ for those aged over 5 months. Regarding nutrition intake method, tube nutrition accounted for over half at the initial visit, but this ratio had reduced to 19％ at the time of outcome.
The need for continued dysphagia rehabilitation was observed in 80％ of patients overall, suggesting the importance of cooperation with hospitals as well as regional clinics.
