Child Safety Week: What to do if your child is choking

Daisy First Aid provides tips on what to do if your child is choking and highlights the top 5 choking foods as Child Safety Week commences

Babies love to explore new objects with their mouths. Whether it is to examine new tastes or textures, or to help little teeth emerge, mouthing is a great experience for your baby, so ensure that any play objects are safe, unbreakable and are too big to fit inside the mouth. If you are weaning, you may find that your baby occasionally gags on even the most pureed food. The sensitive gag reflex allows the food to move forward into the mouth and its quite normal.

• If an object or food does get stuck in the throat and your baby is coughing, it is called ‘partial blockage’. Remember, if your baby can cough then they can continue to cough until the blockage clears.
• You will know if your baby is choking if they are unable to cough, cry or breathe. In this case, you should quickly take the following steps.: sit down and lay baby face down along your thigh supporting their head. Give up to five sharp blows between their shoulder blades with the heel of your hand.
• Check the mouth for the object. If you can confidently pick it out with your fingertips then do so, but take great care not to push it in further.
• If the back blows do not clear the blockage, give up to five chest thrusts: with your baby laid face up along the length of your thigh, put two fingers just below the centre of the chest and push inwards up to five times. Check their mouth regularly and remove the object if possible. If choking persist, repeat back blows and chest thrusts until you dislodge the object and they can breathe. Call for help as soon as possible.

Top 5 choking foods for children

Boiled Sweets: It’s best to avoid giving young children boiled sweets. Children can inhale the sweet if they laugh, take a deep breath or try to swallow it whole.

Carrots: To make carrots a little softer, finely shred them or cook them until there is a mushy consistency throughout.

Grapes: These should always be cut in half or quarters before giving them to your child

Apples: Along with other firm fruits, these should be cut in to small manageable pieces.

Popcorn: The size and shape of popcorn makes them very easy to choke on.

Daisy First Aid offer fun and fear-free first aid courses designed specifically for parents and child carers and their aim is to educate people in a way that makes them feel both confident and comfortable in emergency situations.