Choking and strangling 9 ways you can prevent and handle the situation

Choking and strangling are more prevalent among young children. Children will always be children when it comes to exploring their environment. Turning almost every object into toys they can play with.

The health, peace and safety of your children is your sole responsibility. It becomes very important that you take cognizant of your children’s living environment and playground.

Accidents do occur but you as parents or adults should try your best to make the living environment safe for your wards.

Young children will innocently swallow almost anything small enough to get into their mouths!

Ranging from small toys, seeds, pieces of wood, pins, nails, coins, and fruit seeds any of these may cause serious trouble.

Sometimes these objects become lodged in the throat, at other times in the windpipe, or perhaps the aesophagus.

That is why parents are expected to protect their young children from the danger of choking and strangling. Providing only toys that are perfectly safe for them.

But a times despite our best efforts accidents still happen.

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Here are some tips to prevent choking and strangling:

When giving your children fruits with seeds endeavour to supervise properly if possible help your child remove the big seeds from the fruits or desist from giving them fruits with big seeds until they are more mature enough to handle it.
As parents and adults alike you should supervise mealtime for your children.
Keep harmful food away from children under the age of four.
Teach your children the importance of chewing their food properly before swallowing in a relaxed atmosphere.
Children should be discouraged from eating while running or playing.
Cut your children’s food into smaller swallowable sizes.
Tiny toys, seeds, pieces of wood, pins, nails, coins, buttons and fruit seeds should be kept away from your children’s reach or playground.
Unguarded ropes should not be kept anywhere near your children’s rooms, living rooms or playgrounds.
Always keep an eye on your children as they eat or play around, children should not be left alone without any form of adult supervision.

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What to do:

In an event where choking or strangling still happens even after trying your best, what do you do:

Do not panic, although it’s not easy, but still try to be in charge of your emotions you cannot achieve much in a tense and confusing atmosphere.
Never put your finger into the child’s mouth in an attempt to remove the object. Your finger could further push the object deeper into the child’s throat complicating the situation the more.
Hold the victim forward, head down, and slap him vigorously on the upper back between the shoulder blades.
Another method is to lay the child across the bed with the head and shoulders hanging over the side and slap the upper back.
If the child is very young, hold him up by the heels and slap his back. Any of these movements may help to dislodge the object.
If you discover that the child’s breathing is becoming difficult or irregular, give artificial respiration.
While administering the above first aid, get someone to assist you in getting in touch with the hospital.
Get him to a hospital emergency room as soon as possible.