Choking prevention & treatment for infants & children
Today's guest post is courtesy of Andrew Lewis from Gwenddwr Learning & Development. Andrew is a husband and father to three girls and is also a Community First Responder for the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust in the Abergavenny area. Additionally, he offers first aid training in and around Abergavenny. I've taken his Paediatric First Aid course and highly recommend it for peace of mind. Check out his website for dates and more information.
Today, Andrew discusses choking prevention and treatment for infants and children. Choking is a leading cause of death for children under three so it's vitally important that as a parent or carer you prevent choking as much as possible and know what to do in the unfortunate case that your child does choke.
Choking is a parent's worst nightmare. With the prevalence of social media we hear about choking incidents regularly. I vividly remember one of my daughters choking on mucus at four days old and going through the steps to treat her - thankfully I was able to clear it after the fourth back blow.
As with most things, prevention is better than cure and doing something as simple as cutting up high risk foods like grapes and cherry tomatoes is very important. It's worth noting that other common things children choke on include raisins, sausages cut in disk shape and coins. Looking at the image on the right you can see how easy it is for an item to block a child's airway.
