Week of : December 30, 2002

KIDS AND CHOKING!

A child choking is every parent or caregiver's nightmare! Not surprisingly, choking is very common - in fact it is the leading cause of accidental death among children under one year of age.

Children are well known for putting almost anything in their mouths. An object or a piece of food can either become lodged in the airway itself, or can compress the airway, leading to choking. Children under two years of age are especially at risk because their airway is small. The risk decreases as they get to be three or four years old.

While most parents can name the usual non-food causes of choking like marbles and latex balloons, many don't realize that the most common non-fatal causes of choking are food!

Proper Eating Behaviours:

Prevention is clearly the best strategy to avoid choking. Children who are sitting upright at a table or a high-chair and who have been taught proper eating behaviours are least likely to choke. How a child eats is as important as what they eat. The risk increases if a child is lying down, running, laughing or cramming giant bites of food into their mouths.

Mealtime Supervision:

Children need to be watched at all times and may need some help when they are eating. A child whose airway becomes obstructed with a piece of food often isn't able to cry or call out for help.

Age-Appropriate Food:

Babies who are just beginning to eat table food are not able to chew well. Firstly, because they have few teeth, and secondly because they don't develop the ability to chew with a grinding motion until nearly age four. For babies, food needs to be cooked or soaked until soft, and cut very finely - think pea-sized pieces.

As children age and get more teeth, they can handle larger pieces, but certain foods still need to be served in special ways to avoid choking: