Overlooked Choking Hazard

Recently the American Academy of Pediatrics appealed to the Food and Drug Administration to have warning labels placed on hot dog packages. Why? Research has shown that 17% of choking incidents involving food were cause by hot dogs. This is not news to me. In fact when our daughter was at the age where she could eat solid foods my husband was quite adamant about cutting up our daughters hot dogs to the consistancy of pre-chewed food. At the time I willingly obligued believing I was accomodating his over protective daddyness. I soon realized through research that hotdogs are resposible for the majority of choking incidents in children under 3. Coming up close behind are hard candy and grapes.

The reason is obvious for hard candy and grapes, they are around, they are hard and they plug the throat like a cork. Most parents don't view hot dogs in that manner, for some reason we brush them off as soft, maliable and safe. Trust me, they're not, so please if you want to give your kids hot dogs cut them up first.

If you find yourself in the unfortunate sitation of having a choking child do you know what to do? First things first, DO NOT stick your finger in your childs mouth to try and pull it out of their throat. You could inadvertantly push it farther in, making it harder to dislodge. If the child is coughing and gagging, give them firm pats on the back to help dislodge the object. If this does not help, place child down your leg, or on your forearm, head down and pat their back firmly. The patting and gravity will usually work to dislodge the object. Don't be alarmed if the child vomits, this is the body's natural reaction to help clear the way. Use the link below to review the procedures and consider looking into first aid courses for children and infants. Most YMCA's and/or Fire Departments offer some CPR/First Aid courses. It's a good place to start and they can point you in the right direction.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_infant-first-aid-for-choking-and-cpr-an-illustrated-guide_9298.bc

Here is a link to a story about the dangers of Hot Dogs:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/sciencemedicine/story/EB9C681D789227F2862576EF000E1C1D?OpenDocument