Whole grapes are a choking hazard - right?!

[Cutthegrapes]

So, why do I find myself unwittingly engaged in a battle with one of the UK's largest pub and restaurant chains to get them to cut the grapes in a children's fruit salad? AIBU to think that it wouldn't be easier cut the grapes than perform the Heimlich on a preschooler in a restaurant?

If you're already thinking, 'Wait, this guy has literally just joined mumsnet to have a moan', then you're not far off. I've joined Mumsnet because I'm a concerned father and I'm not being taken seriously by Whitbread. I was just a concerned father when I raised this issue with Whitbread, following a meal in a Table Table restaurant. When they fobbed me off until their 'next menu review', but thanked me for raising a 'presentation' issue, I became an angry and concerned father. After my email to the CEO and Senior Management of Premier Inns and Restaurants went unanswered, I became a determined father. It's genuinely a life and death issue and it cannot be ignored because it's too much hassle to take a few extra seconds when preparing food for children.

RoSPA and the Child Accident Prevention Trust and may other charities have run campaigns encouraging parents to cut grapes before feeding them to children. Children have nearly died and children have actually died as a result of getting grapes lodged in their windpipes - just do a quick Google and it's not hard to see what can happen if you don't cut the grapes!

I know it sounds trivial, I know I probably sound histrionic, but frankly, it's a bigger issue than that and I cannot think of a reason why any food outlet could defend a decision to not cut the grapes in dishes specifically designed for children. Accidents do not wait for 'menu reviews'. AIBU to think that a responsible organisation might have jumped on the opportunity to do the right thing, simply ask their pubs and restaurants to cut the grapes and take advantage of the good publicity? I'm sure they're careful with nuts in their meals, so why be so irresponsible with grapes?

If you'd like to read my original post and copy of the letter to Whitbread's CEO, you can find them in the visitor posts on the 'Table Table Pub Restaurants' Facebook page. www.facebook.com/TableTable/posts/1164224453670659

AIBU? I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Alex

Whitbread presumably want to attract families.

Being dickish to families with young children isn't a good look.

I just don't see what's to be gained by that argument.

They continue to not cut up grapes. Toddlers continue to choke on grapes. Win -win

It's not a coincidence that these incidents tend to happen outside the home, when there are more distractions for even responsible parents. It would be an easy and responsible change to make.

YANBU. As you say, a fruit salad comes ready to eat and is served with a spoon. I expect to have to cut up food for my child that I would cut up for myself and is therefore served with a knife and fork. Grapes are in their own special category of hazardousness and everyone selling food to children should take that into account.

If you volunteer with small kids you have to chop up grapes these days.

Yanbu.

Let's help people with children.

I understand why people worry over grapes. I worry that the fuss over grapes distracts from the fact that children can choke on anything. A child has choked to death on mashed potato before. Cut grapes if it makes you feel better but the more important thing is to make sure you know what to do if your child chokes, and supervise their eating. I no longer cut grapes for my 2 yr old, but I have been on a recent children's first aid course and I always sit with him and concentrate on him when he is eating. I don't mind if a family friendly chain cuts grapes or not. I'd be very impressed if they trained staff in first aid though.

As an adult I wouldn't expect to be served a fruit salad with whole grapes in tbh.

Because Satsuki as PP said I think protesting like this will just see grapes taken off the menu, most schools and playgroups here have stopped serving grapes at snack time.

I thought grapes where a particular hazard because they can't easily be choked back up again? That is they are the perfect size to block the airway.

Totally agree op.

It's both the shape/size and the skin, which means a perfect combination: will plug airway completely, & really really fucking hard for ambulance crew to extract.

The baby/children's first aid course that DP and I did explained that for children under 5, their airways are actually a different shape so easier to block - more funnel / than pipe || IYSWIM?

Well, fine.

Yes grapes are a choking haszard however a kids menu is between toddler and 10ish so no need to cut grapes, surely you could cut up a few grapes or is it a ginormous fruit that you have a million grapes to chop ?

My understanding is that grapes are particularly difficult to dislodge, regardless of the skills of any first aider.

I wish McDonald's would cut the grapes in the fruit bags. It's a pain trying to pull them apart before dd has them.

YANBU. To those that say 4/5 year olds are old enough to chew them, think again. They could cough and accidentally swallow them. My friend is a paediatric A&E nurse and was recently part of a team of medical professionals desperately trying to save a 5 year old child with a grape stuck in her throat while her desperate father screamed for them to save her. Tragically they couldn't.

Yes I've had several paramedics say the call they dread is grapes and balloons as there's very little to be done.

I choked as a child, and remember it vividly. My mum, with no first aid skills, driven by pure panic, managed to dislodge the item. If it was smooth and the exact shape of my windpipe there would have been no chance.

RoSPA and the Child Accident Prevention Trust and may other charities have run campaigns encouraging parents to cut grapes before feeding them to children

Key word being parents, in that sentence. Not everyone else do it for you.

YANBU. Good luck with this.

I'd be very impressed if they trained staff in first aid though.

In the case I mentioned above, where a 2 yr old died after choking on a grape at Pizza Hut, the restaurant had a trained first aider. The media reports at the time said that the first aider working at Pizza Hut, plus 2 first aiders from the cinema next door, had all been unable to dislodge the grape. The paramedics eventually managed to get an airway but by then it was too late for the poor little boy.

I know it's possible to choke on any food, but my understanding is that grapes are particularly difficult to dislodge once someone starts choking.

People saying "My child bites a grape first", are you ensuring they bite lengthways? Half a grape with a circular plane can still choke as effectively as a whole grape.

Children can school on anything, yes, that is true.
But other things can be dislodged by a first aider or medically trained person
Grapes form a perfect plug that blocks the airway of children
If a child was choking and had fallen unconscious, its possible that mouth to mouth resuscitation would provide enough oxygen until the ambulance arrived
Unless it was a grape
Because of the shape of them, its impossible to dislodge or even use mouth to mouth to get air into the airway

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To be honest your not wrong there was a toddler in the next town to be who went to Pizza Hut and ended up choking on a grape and died

Agree with OP. I sit cutting up the grapes in the ubiquitous fruit bags you get in kids' meal boxes, I don't care if it makes me look over protective (though I also know someone who peels them and that seems a step too far!)

Is it beyond your wit to be able to read the menu, see that the dessert you have chosen has grapes in it, and simply ask that they slice the grapes because your children are young ?

Am I the only one wondering why no-one seems to have thought of this rather obvious solution?