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

Do we not take responsibility for our own children anymore?
They may serve a meal that is way too hot.... Should they be fanning it down in the kitchen before serving ???

DS can only eat chopped grapes because he doesn't chew properly. When we are in the UK everyone assumes, because of my accent, we live there. We are visiting and often eating all meals out during the day. It is really hard to manage a healthy diet and chopped grapes is easier to achieve with a sharp knife.

As for only 4 people dying over an extended people, it also might be that parents are for the most part chopping grapes and grape tomatoes for young children. I certainly do.

I don't think that's the case though. Normally with a public safety issue there is a spate of medical articles highlighting the danger, a public awareness campaign to educate on a change of practice, then studies afterwards to show how the campaign worked. The best example is SIDS. There has never been a massive public health issue with children choking on grapes, at least not as long as there have been published medical articles (Pubmed has articles going back decades). So have parents been cutting up grapes for millennia to avoid such a public health issue, or is the public health issue massively overstated on MN? I'll wager the latter.

Can children choke on grapes? Of course. But they don't seem to be a greater risk than certain other foods. Posters here seem to freak out about grapes but how many give their kids an apple? What about nuts? Carrots? Sausage? I never see any MN posts about how pubs/restaurants should only serve sausages cut up, and never keep peanuts behind the bar, yet they are the two most likely foods to lead to a fatal asphyxia outcome.

Children can't go and help themselves to sausages at a salad bar, it's easier to cut up food as a main meal comes with cutlery for the purpose, I never see peanuts being served to toddlers, grapes are presented in a bowl with other, generally cut up fruit that arrives with a spoon and it's awkward. Most people naturally keep small toys like Lego away from infants, but then will feed them whole grapes.

As for it being a mumsnet thing, well I didn't get the idea off Mumsnet, I got it from first aid training.

The statistics are not very comforting if yours is one of the few children.

Well what I'm saying is your first aid training is a bit odd to focus on a food that has sporadically caused problems compared to other foods and items that are much more likely. I'm saying your first aid training contributes to the grape hype too.

Most people naturally keep small toys like Lego away from infants, but then will feed them whole grapes.

Many people on this thread cut up their kids' grapes but I bet a lot of them let them eat an apple or a sausage without the same worry.

Besides, first aid training shouldn't really worry about what food it is, the choking algorithm is the same regardless of the item. Like I said, I've worked in paediatrics for years, in emergency, PICU, done advanced life support training and the only time I've seen such an intense focus on grapes is on Mumsnet. The statistics aren't meant to comfort people if it's their child, the statistics are to try to offer some logic and reason to risk analysis.

Brilliant, kudos to Whitbread for listening and reacting;

...we have decided to change the presentation of the fruit salad on the children’s menu and slice the grapes as you suggested. The restaurant teams are being briefed across all our restaurant brands this week and I expect all sites to be compliant by the weekend.

Thank you to everyone for the variety of responses, both for and against.

I also first heard about grapes being a choking hazard from a first aid course when DS1 was a baby, rather than from Mumsnet. There was also a tragic case local to me last year where a 2 yr old choked to death on a grape at Pizza Hut.

The first aid course I went on did not focus on the dangers of grapes to the exclusion of all other foods. When talking about foods that are a particular choking risk, they also mentioned cherry tomatoes, lollipops, whole nuts, and recommended cutting up sausages (and other similar shaped foods) lengthways instead of into discs to reduce choking risks.

Did you really not consider that food was a choking hazard until you did a first aid course Josephine

Congratulations . That's a good result .

Notso more commenting that a children's first aid course (at least the one I was on), rather than just telling you what to do if a child starts choking, also talks about foods that are considered to be high choking risks - prevention being better than cure and all that.

Just as, when they were talking about first aid for burns, they talked about preventative things that one might also consider obvious, such as not leaving freshly poured hot drinks in easy reach of toddlers, and using fire guards to stop a small child touching / falling onto a hot gas / electric / open fire.

Glad to hear you got a good response OP

Yanbu grapes kill. You. Any compare chopping up your dc sausage for convenience to a grape.

Cut your own child's grapes?

am I the only parent who teaches their child to bite?

I cut grapes when they were small and said, bite on it, by the time they were about 3 they always bit on grapes. A bitten grape isn't a hazard?

I understand the OP, and think that probably a restaurant should cut grapes in kids salad or leave them out, but whatever happened to teachign stuff to kids?

That's great OP!

I remember being at a toddler group and having an argument with some of the other mums. They were insisting that whole grapes were safer as they were bigger and could be bitten.
They said small cut grapes were far more dangerous.
They couldn't see the logic of the 'shape' being the important factor. A whole grape will block the airway and be impossible to pull out.

Harribo sweets are way more dangerous!

Harribo sweets are way more dangerous!

Great result, OP. You must feel relieved.

You are right and I'm sure this may be something that the charity "Millies Trust" may be interested in getting behind you in your campaign, I still cut my 10 year olds grapes (I know, I may take it a bit too far). I was at a soft play party where they served whole grapes and whole cherry tomatoes to a table of 20 3 year olds - I sat and cut the lot!!! And always cut your grapes long ways or even in quarters!!

just read your update, well done!!

Well done... Great job.
I am horrified by how uninformed many parents are. The amount of 3 yo birthday parties I have been to where whole grapes have been served makes me mad. I have to jump up to stop ds eating them as he loves cut ones.
I also see other parents just giving them to their kids it's hard to know how to bring it up - surely they know are they stupid or just don't care