If you have kids, than you have probably thought of every possible threat that may risk your baby’s health. For most parents, chocking is the biggest fear of them all. But, if you are able to identify the very first signs of chocking, you will most certainly solve the problem without panicking.
Risks of chocking
It is important to understand which foods put your child at a risk for chocking. Be careful when feeding your child with grapes, hot dogs, blueberries, and other similarly-sized foods. Here is a good tip for you.
You can chop the food for your child into bite-size pieces and make things a lot easier. In this way it will be easy for the food to find its way past the airways without causing any additional trouble.
Infants still learn how to eat their food, and they run at the highest risk of chocking. This happens because they still do not know the importance of chewing and the proper amount of food they can chew.
Signs of chocking
Coughing, shortness of breath, red face and going silent are common signs of chocking. If your child coughs and you can notice some air that still gets through, do not anything at the moment. If your child can clear it up on its own, you do not have to do any potentially dangerous interventions.
But, if its airway is completely blocked, remain calm and do anything that is in your power to save your child.
Take these steps to save your child from choking
Read the following steps carefully and you can even practice them on a doll. In this way you will be prepared to act appropriately when needed.
- Stay calm. Seeing your beloved child chocking is a terrifying sight, but try to understand that it is already scared. If you remain calm, your child will not panic, too.
- Take your child out of its seat.
- Turn it, and make sure it faces the floor.
- Place your child on your thigh, and allow its mouth to hang free over the edge of your knee.
- Deliver five back blows between its shoulder blades using the heel of your hand.
- This step may be just enough to dislodge any food pieces. If that does not happen, turn your child around and perform a finger sweep along the opening to its throat in order to catch any offending chunk.
- If your baby is still chocking, lay it on the back, and use both your middle and pointing finger to perform five chest thrusts along its sternum.
- Repeat the same technique up to two more times.
- If the chocking continue after you have done three cycles of back blows and chest thrusts, make sure you call an emergency service, because you may not clear the blockage without any additional help.
Chocking is something scary to see, especially when it is happening to your child, but it is something you can solve immediately. Children often gag on their food at certain point in their live – that is a part of their process on learning how to chew their food. Follow these handy steps and you will never experience a problem.
