Do you still cut up your kids’ grapes?

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My DS is 8 in a few weeks and I still cut up his grapes, in case of a choking hazard. My MIL thinks that I’m crazy and laughed at me when I told her I did this 🙈

What do you do?

I absolutely still cut my 9 year old DD’s grapes. I can’t imagine i’ll ever stop. Even i’m incredibly cautious when eating them, I bite them in half.

I only usually serve her them Richmond skinless sausages, but on the odd occasion I give her butchers sausages I make her cut them up in to small pieces. I hate her eating hotdogs when we are at parties etc and remind her to take little bites and chew lots.

DS 9 yea, not sure when to stop tbh it's automatic

Yes, for both my 6&7 y olds.

When my then 4 y old choked on a hotdog in the pub it was bloody scary! I was sitting right next to them and the choking was silent. I only noticed when they grabbed my arm with that look of complete panic and those bulging eyes. I'll never forget it. So yes, I still cut up my children's grapes etc. or get them to do it.

Anything smooth, round and small (grapes, cherry tomatoes, hot dog sausages and that sort of thing) should be sliced lengthways, even for adults really.

“Today 20:49 glagdy

@Dermymc are you actually reading the fucking thread? 8 year olds have died with medics present who simply couldn't get the grape out.

Your child is so young you're being lazy and negligent by not cutting them, sorry.”

When have 8 year olds died in the prescence of medics? I’ve just googled and it seems incredibly rare. A paper in the BMJ cites a couple of cases, all small children.

One DS, 4! After the little boy who choked to death on an uncut grape at a Pizza Hut, I will be continuing to cut up grapes for my son, to me it just isn’t worth the risk!

Never did
My Dc are both in their 20s , when did this become a rule ?

I’m shocked by the posters who DON’T cut grapes for their tiny children .

It’s a well known fact that whole grapes can be a massive choking risk. Doesn’t matter if your child “knows how to chew” , all it takes is for that one incident. The shape and the skin of a grape means it can be near impossible for them to cough it back up.

Way too many children have died unnecessarily. It takes seconds to cut grapes up.

Still doing it at 10! But I have a younger dc too and usually give grapes in a container with other fruit like a fruit salad. So it's nice to have them cut anyway.

I was amazed when she was little, hardly any toddler groups gave them cut.

I don't let my youngest have mini eggs, hard sweets, mints etc either.

Honestly if you thought about life like this and tried to minimise every tiny risk, you would never do anything.

You're far more likely to get killed in a car accident but you probably don't stop driving places.

It is astonishingly rare for children to choke and die from a grape in the windpipe. Especially children who bite grapes first.

@whyispeppainthenightgarden I think the concern is that they are so very difficult to remove if they start to choke on them that it most likely will not make any difference if they are being supervised whilst eating - children die because grapes can't easily be removed with CPR.

DC 7 and 9 and yes, but particuarly for packed lunches as where various PP have said you don’t know if they are distracted/fooling about/laughing.

I am also the same with any disc shaped food like small sausages (always cut lengthways), cherry tomatoes, olives or dry popcorn.

And I know I am not paranoid, I have an immediate family member who is a paediatric consultant who told me this many years ago. The stats for choking hazards are these things, plus inhaled balloons, hot dogs, and small rubber bouncy balls. All perfect size to block the airway and be absolutely impossible to get out.

Me neither Brillo. My kids are in their late teens/twenties. I don’t remember it being a Thing when they were small. I was very ByTheBook with the first 2 and I certainly don’t recall it being a rule then, in the mid nineties.

No I don’t think grape cutting was a thing until about 2007

Grapes are different to every other food that can choke @chickywoo the texture of the skin and shape means they can get stuck and nothing can shift them, even CPR. You may scoff, but it's a serious issue.

If I'm prepping food I cut them for my dad (5) if not I've taught her that he has to bite them in half before putting them in her mouth.

I neatly side step all of this - my kids are 20 and 12 and I've never given either of them a grape All other fruit yep.

If I did though, I would of course cut. And it should be diagonal and not horizontal.

I still cut them at 8 and 9. Not sure when to stop??
My mum doesn’t though so definitely not a thing when we were growing up.

My children are 10 and 7. I stopped halving grapes when they were about 5. We do insist on sitting at tables for meals, the importance of chewing food properly etc. I think cutting up grapes for older children is a bit over the top if I’m completely honest.

Still do for 5 year old and will continue to do so until she leaves home! I have taught her how to bite whole grapes if she gets them on a play date etc
She hates that I cut them and I've caught her before taking them out of the fridge and stuffing whole ones in her mouth
I did t buy grapes for a while after that!

To reduce choking risk any high risk food should be cut into pieces smaller than 8mm x 8mm - which is smaller than a paediatric trachea.

I used to eat them straight off the vines.

I saved a 3 year old from choking on a piece of burger. It was the most terrifying thing that's ever happened to me, I feel sick thinking about it 9 years later.

She passed out and went limp, her lips turned blue. I have no doubt that if it had been a grape I wouldn't have been able to get it out and she would have died. They are so slippery, just the right size and hard enough that they lodge tight.

Ok so people never used to, we didn't used to use bloody car seats either.

Do you all cut cherry tomatoes in half, or quarters? The children I know eat them straight from the plants!

@4yearsnosleep your dad is 5?!

I do and will do so for the foreseeable, three kids aged 1-5. The 5 year old i halve them lengthways. Younger kids I quarter them.

Went to a soft play birthday party recently and couldn't believe they served whole grapes on the buffet platter for a three year olds party!