Here’s why you should not allow your toddlers to eat grapes alone
- A little child ate grapes and choked on it
- The risk of choking is also why children’s toys comes with a warning
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However, any parent especially those with kids barely 3-5 years old will be careful about their children’s food habits, considering the fact that it is the growing age. Busy schedules means parents have to juggle a lot of things together, office, home, child rearing and more. So sometimes they can’t pay complete attention to what the little tot is up to.
This inattention almost cost a child his life. A little child ate grapes and choked on it. Why? Because of the size of their little airways. Did you know? Choking is the fourth leading cause of accidental death for children under age 5.
This x-ray shared by an Australian blogger is a warning for parents and children everywhere. The X-ray shows a piece of grape lodged in the child’s airway. It was surgically removed.
The risk of choking is also why children’s toys comes with a warning. However, food such as nuts, candy and grapes do not come with such a warning and parents do not think too much of it as well.
Leave alone grapes, children have the habit of picking up anything off the floor and putting it in their mouth. Parents will not even know of it in most cases. In the USA, there were 2103 childhood deaths from foreign body airway obstruction between 1999 and 2013.1 The majority of choking episodes occur in those under 3 years of age, the very group most at risk of death , states a case report titled The choking hazard of grapes: a plea for awareness.
The report talks about the case of a 17-month-old boy, who was at home eating sandwiches and fruits with his family. He was consuming a grape when he developed signs of choking. Attempts to dislodge the fruit at home were unsuccessful and, after dialling 999, the patient was rushed to the local community hospital. Sadly, the child died.
Doctors warn that certain precautions need to be taken with children. Parents should cut the grapes into little pieces and that children should be seated upright while eating food.
When kids are left unsupervised, it can sometimes lead to fatal incidents. Like choking or strangling. Previously, there had been an incident where a young kid was playing with the curtain blinds and he managed to hang himself in its ropes. Needless, to say it was a shock for the family, who was sitting right there.
