Common Choking Food Hazards for Children

Jan 10

One of the hardest parts of being a physician is witnessing preventable tragedies. Choking accidents are so common in children that we take a special interest in educating parents about it.

Choking is the fourth leading cause of unintentional death in children under the age of five. That’s why we recommend children under the age of five have supervised mealtimes. The most common cause of nonfatal choking in young children is food. That is a very daunting image for parents and understandably can make eating solids a stressful experience!

Let us help a little with some tips below.

At the Pedipals, we recognize that there are some foods that can be avoided or altered in order to minimize choking. Here are five foods that commonly cause choking in young children:

1. Whole grapes

· Grapes are slippery. Though grapes are delicious and nutritious, there are ways to minimize the risk of choking, by cutting them lengthwise so they can pass more easily through smaller throats. Try not to cut them widthwise, because they can still be big enough to choke on. You can either slice them downwards in half, or for small babies, you might want to cut them lengthwise again into quarters.

2. Popcorn

· The size of a young child's trachea (windpipe) or breathing tube is roughly the size of a drinking straw in diameter. Now imagine a piece of popcorn being lodged a straw! That can be nearly impossible to remove. Since popcorn is minimally nutritious, we recommend trying to avoid it as a food altogether while children are young.

3. Nuts

· While we do recommend introduction to nuts at the age of 6 months in otherwise healthy babies, whole nuts can be hard for young mouths to chew and swallow, thereby increasing the risk of choking. Therefore, we recommend small amounts of nut butters until children are old enough to manage nuts. Nuts and nutbutters can be a healthy part of a balanced diet!

4. Hot dogs

· Although it is not commonly known, hot dogs are also slippery. We recommend cutting them lengthwise and widthwise. If it were up to us, since hot dogs are typically not very nutritious, we would tend to avoid this as much as possible too.

5. Candy

· Especially hard or sticky candy, cough drops, gum, lollipops, marshmallows, caramels, hard candies, and jelly beans are all choking hazards. So not only is candy not healthy, full of sugar, addictive and bad for our health but it can also be a leading cause of choking in young children. Wouldn’t it be easier to avoid this and save it for the occasional special occasion?

In summary, at least one child dies from choking on food every five days in the U.S., and more than 12,000 children are taken to a hospital emergency room each year for food-choking injuries. Remember, not all children will be at the same developmental level. Children with special health care needs are especially vulnerable to choking risks. Children should have a calm, unhurried meal and snack time and should not eat when walking, riding in a car or playing. Try to keep the aforementioned tips in mind when feeding your young children.

The pedipals also recommend that parents get familiar with how to perform the Heimlich maneuver. A good resource for this is here: Be ready for emergencies - Harvard Health.

Your PediPals

The PediPals