LEARNING WHAT TO DO IF A CHILD IS CHOKING

If a child is choking, it is often a life-threatening situation and you’ll have just a couple of minutes to take the right action to save the child’s life. For this reason, it is vital to ask your local doctor or clinic for instruction or a class on how to handle a choking event. In the meantime, this article is only for general awareness of choking, and NOT intended or attempting to replace the formal first aid instruction you should get from your doctor.

As a parent, it will make an important difference to ask your local hospital or clinic about first aid courses that teach you what to do in the event of a child choking. That said, this is a guideline as to what you can expect to learn from taking such a first aid course...

Children, particularly the under 5s, often put objects in their mouths. This is particularly true for babies, as it is instinctive behaviour and a huge part of how they discover the world around them. Some small objects, such as buttons, wheels from toys, marbles, beads and (importantly) bites of food (such as peanuts or popcorn), are the right size to get stuck in a child’s airway and cause choking. The best way to avoid this is to make sure that small objects like these are kept out of your child’s reach and their food and play times are properly supervised at all times.

No matter how careful you are, it is still very easy for your child to choke on something. In some cases, you or someone else might actually see your child swallow the object that causes choking, but sometimes not. If your child suddenly starts coughing, isn’t ill and has a habit of putting small objects in their mouth, there’s a good chance that they’re choking.

A child’s airways can also become blocked when a child has an anaphylactic reaction (caused by a nut allergy, for example), vomits during a seizure or becomes unconscious.

Children can choke if their airways become partially or completely blocked. If a baby or child shows signs of choking, phone 999 and ask for an ambulance and advice immediately.

Signs that a child’s airway is partially blocked:

• Loss of voice

• Choking noises

• Coughing that keeps getting worse