To ask when you are supposed to stop cutting up grapes

[1Veryhungrycaterpillar]

V dumb question really but I still do this for my eldest (5) and my Dzh laughs at me, it's mainly because they are for packed lunch and I can't trust her not to rush her lunch at school

never.

I feel like a terrible mother now.... Ds 2.3 has been eating whole grapes for ages!!

Don't have proof; was told it at a paediatric first aid course. They also said grapes account for some extraordinarily large proportion of choking incidents (far more than other fruit, for example).

The danger ages are between 2-10yrs. Under 2yrs the trachea is too small for a grape to get stuck, and big enough by 10yrs.

I stopped with my Dd a while back when she was nearly 4. The very next day a local lad, age 5 died at his after school club, having choked on a grape. I'll be cutting my family's grapes forever now, even when I'm a crusty old fossil awaiting a birthday email from Queen Diana the First and my DDs are almost at retiring age.

I have a massive issue with grapes, dd1 (11) occasionally has them whole but I make sure she bites them in half.

Ds1 has them cut in half.dd2 has them cut into quarters and ds2 14 months has 1 grape cut into about 12 little pieces. Iam so terrified of them choking.

Hv told me when dd1 was a baby that she had known of 2 children who died from choking on grapes and that it wasn't safe to give them whole. I am just as fussy about anything similar, cherry tomatoes, pieces of sausage etc.

Grapes are apparently particularly bad for choking, and particularly difficult to dislodge if they do get stuck.

I still cut them for my almost 3 year old and do for the 5 year old for packed lunches. At home I just make sure he is sitting down and doesn't put them whole in his mouth.

I'll continue cutting up grapes, cutting sausage vertically and refusing to give my children round lollipops for as long as I can get away with.

I think 8 might be a good age to relax (maybe)

I cut up grapes for my 2 youngest.

It's not about being a bad mother, or a parenting fail. FFS! It's not a competition to see who is the most relaxed or non-uptight mother. It is just something that needs to be thought about. Like telling children not to run with lollipops etc..

I never cut up grapes for my older two, I didn't know about it. Doesn't make me a bad mother. As soon as I found out with the others, I did. Just common sense really! I never knew about marshmallows either, until now. Will be more careful in future. Thanks.

I didn't know that about the skin, I'll keep on chopping then

Stretch exactly!

I know a 7.5 year old who still has all her food cut up for her.. she doesnt appear to know what a knife is for... I watched in amazement as one of her parents did this for her on Sunday.. even more in amazement when she then refused to eat the food (that she had picked), and demanded a different dinner because another child was having it. Further disbelief when said parent then allowed the first plate to be left, and ordered a second meal, then proceeded to chop that up for the spoilt brat child too.

keep cutting them up for now, if you are concerned. I really think it depends on the child/person. If they are quick eaters then much more likely to swallow without chewing. DS (3.5) choked on half a grape recently cos he thought it would be fun to eat the whole thing, like a party trick ! He tried to do it again 5 mins alter so i cut them up into quarters now !

I cut up grapes, apples and tougher meat. My 2-year-old son tends to take the approach of shoving in his food, and we have to remind him to chew.

Bloody hell Squeaky, that's v ott my 5 year old uses a knife and fork for her meals sounds like chopping things up is not the only issue they have!

Oh dear I cut up dd 6 food, but she has asd and dev delay

There are no SN with this 7yo, she just really is that spoilt and mollycoddled.

A related question, does anyone know when it is safe to give children whole nuts? I imagine that peanuts and hazelnuts must be particularly dangerous because of their shape, but what about walnuts etc?

Advice is no whole nuts under 5.

My 19 month old has grapes and I don't cut them up

I am a deficient parent.

I was cutting them up, but DH doesn't.

SoftSheen he also has nuts, any of them really. He's a cashew fiend!

Ok?.

So can someone shed any light on why marshmallows are now the work of the devil? Or why sausages have to be cut up lengthways?

I can?t remember cutting up a grape past the age of 18 months. Surely if you?re that concerned by the risk of choking then you watch your child when they eat them?

I can't remember when I stopped, but DS was old enough to understand that he had to bite them in half first and that it was because it was a choking hazard. Once he'd promised me he'd eat them safely, I stopped cutting them.

It is hard to wean yourself off though. If Iknow it's a hazard and it ends up being fatal, it would be impossible for me to live with that. Like most things about parenting tbh. It took me ages to stop using the sensor pad under DD's mattress too.

Short of packing myself in her lunchbox I fail to see how I could do that. Saying that I've never cut a sausage up lengthways either, I think Marshmallows are now considered a choking hazard as a couple of toddlers have got them stuck in throat and died, something to do with them swelling up? My Dds don't like them anyway so I don't know

I think you're right Chicaguapa, I've been doing it on auto pilot and it wasn't until DH laughed that I questioned it, it's hard to know because my DH loves to laugh at anything remotely health and safety related 'we survived blah blah etc'

Marshmallows are bad because if they are stuck, they are stuck. There is nowhere for any air to get through and they cannot really be dislodged by the usual choking methods. They are the worse things for choking.

Grapes because the size and shape is like a cork for a childs windpipe (as told to me in the paediatric first aid course I did), same as cherry tomatoes.

Its the frankfurter sausages that are the problem, again cut into small round pieces is like a cork for a childs windpipe.

There was a top 5 of worse things to choke on, the rest that have been mentioned in my post, can't remember the other one.

IMO, its not worth the risk. We were also told that the worse thing is when I child laughs or coughs when eating, that's when they tend to choke because they suck it back then it becomes stuck.

I'm so glad all these people on here can say "oh well, mine are still here" etc. Brilliant argument. Pity the opposite end aren't here to say differently.

I had a friend once who said "oh I don't bother, my children know how to chew" What like mine don't? No, I forgot I taught mine that the much gulp everything down whole. I also make mine sit when eating, my friend doesn't. But its ok, because her children know how to chew.