Swallowing Characteristics of Pediatric Patients With Eosinophilic Esophagitis

Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) can affect patients all age group and clinical symptoms of the disease varies depending on the patient's ages. Infants and toddlers with EoE generally have food refusal, vomiting and poor weight gain. Older school-aged children and adolescents may have abdominal and chest pain, difficulty in swallowing (dysphagia) especially in solid foods. In the meantime, many children especially infants and toddlers, are not perceptive of their dysphagia, because they have the ability to compensate. Such as, avoiding certain textures or increases liquid intake in the meal.To date, to our knowledge, there is no study in the literature has investigated complex swallowing behaviour (including all phases), oral-motor evaluation and/or swallowing safety. Thus, the present study purposed to investigate (a) descriptive and clinical swallowing characteristics of children with EoE (b) the relation between disease characteristic and swallowing function.