Choking happens when an object blocks someone’s throat or windpipe, making them unable to breathe
A 4-year-old child died after choking on candy in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur, according to doctors who tried to treat him. According to reports, the child was eating Frootola - an eye-shaped sticky toffee he swallowed and got stuck in his throat.
When he told his mother, she gave him water to wash it down, due to which the candy slipped further down his throat, making him breathless. He was then rushed to a nearby hospital where the doctors were not able to remove the toffee from his throat and he eventually passed due to choking.
Family members said the child died tragically after battling for around three hours. His family has now requested that the toffee manufacturer should be held accountable.
Choking hazards in children
According to experts, choking happens when an object blocks someone’s throat or windpipe, making them unable to breathe. Statistics say the main cause of injury among small children happens mostly during eating so it is always good to know for parents which foods are the biggest choking hazards.
Doctors say hard candy causes the most choking episodes, followed by other candy, such as tough or large chunks of meat and bones. Apart from hard candy, there are many other high-risk foods as well which you need to keep out of grabbing distance of infants and toddlers – as they are choking hazards. A few of these include:
- Grapes
- Popcorn
- Chips
- Carrot sticks
- Raw vegetable chunks
- Cheese chunks
- Sticky candy
- Peanut butter
- Chewing gum
Signs and symptoms of choking
So, to know whether your child is choking, you must look for these signs:
- Gasping or wheezing
- Try to cough loudly
- Inability to talk, cry, or make any kind of noise
- Turns blue in their face
- Grabs their throat or waves arms in the air
- Seems panicked
How can you help a child who is choking?
According to experts, even though it gets extremely worrying and scary to find your child choking, the first thing you need to do is emergency services. Doctors say for infants- children less than a year old - instead of reaching into their mouth to search for the object blocking their airway, you should begin backslaps. To perform a backslap, use the heel of your hand to strike between your child’s shoulder blades at least 5-6 times, then check their mouth and remove any objects.
For those who are older than 12 months, try performing the Heimlich maneuver – where you bend the child over at the waist to face the ground. Strike five separate times between their shoulder blades with the heel of your hand along with giving abdominal thrusts. If back blows are not able to remove the stuck object, give five more abdominal thrusts.
How can you prevent choking in children?
A few things to always consider whenever you give food to children include:
Always give age-appropriate foods
According to experts, children of different ages have different needs when it comes to eating. Since toddlers do not have molars, they cannot grind or crush food and so you need to be careful while giving them fruits and vegetables or candies.
Cut food into small pieces
It is always important to see the size of food being given to small children. Always make sure to cut your child’s food into small pieces so that it does not get stuck in their throat.
Make the kids sit down to eat
Teach the kids to always swallow their food before they start talking, laughing, or take another bite of food as it increases their chances of choking.
Make sure they sit down straight when they eat, even while eating a candy, and always supervise.
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