AIBU...grapes...

[LokiBear]

Dd1 is 6.5. I still cut her grapes in half. She wants me to stop. She helped me make her lunch for tomorrow earlier and asked me to leave them whole. I said that she must make sure she eats them properly. I'm not sat here debating cutting them up. Wwyd?

I see the Red cross instigates abdominal thrusting children, I used to go for training every year, as part of my Nursing, we were told just to use back slaps on children, and that abdominal thrusts could cause internal injury.

I never knew grapes were so dangerous!

My DS is only one but I should imagine I will cut up his grapes until he leaves home!

I dont understand the mocking. Some parents are taking the advice to minimise a risk by spending a few seconds to cut up grapes.
it isn't impacting at all on parents who chose not too.
Some parents let their children go to the park alone some dont, some leave toddlers in the car at the garage or school pick up some dont.
Everyone makes their own judgements as to the best way to keep their children safe.
Why mock if someone elses risk assessment is different to yours.

I wouldn't mock, do what you want, it doesn't do any harm. But it does seem unnecessary.

Never heard of this before. Didn't realise it was advised to cut anything up. Didn't do it for my children. However, I would in future for any children I'm feeding, because why take the risk?

you're supposed to cut them lengthways too, not widthways if that makes sense.

This is why I do it, still, and my daughter is 9.

www.lovejasmine.org.uk/about

I do find the grape hysteria on mn interesting.

It is one of those things where, to me, the parent retains control insetad of teaching the child.

So, I taught my kids not to pop grapes or cherry tomatoes in their mouth whole, but to bite into them. By abotu 2/3 they were able to do that pretty consistentl and there was no problem.

I was probably one of those parents who put out grapes at 4/5 year old parties, at it never occurred to me that people don't teach their kids to bite.

I know grapes are a serious risk, becuase they get stuck, but I cannot be everywhere that my kids are, so I taught them to bite into them instead of popping in your mouth.

Interestingly, when I was a kid seedless grapes were rare and expensive, so you ALWAYS bit into grapes, then picked out the seeds, and then ate the pther half!
One of those times when foof inovation is a backwards step.

foof inovation!!!!!

food, (obviously)

and (having just read the above posts) no mocking intending, just genuine discussion on different parenting styles

You can do both steppermum. My children know if we are sonewhere and the grapes are whole to bite into them but at home i cut them. It doesn't have to be one or the other.

I've never cut them up but I do tell my kids to bite them and don't put the full thing in my mouth. My 3,4 and 7yr old have thankfully never had any incidents.

They are always supervised and they do bite and eat them slowly

Keep cutting them OP, takes seconds to do. Not sure why anyone has a problem with it tbh.

try reading the whole message, actually contained within the bit you quoted:
as it never occurred to me that people don't teach their kids to bite.

I am still puzzled by the idea that a 4 /5 year old doesn't knwo how to eat grapes.

EB123 - fair enough. But I am not sure why you need to cut them up if they know to bite them?

Don't push your anxiety on to your DD OP. It's unfair.

I have a 6 year old and I've never cut them for him. Teach her to bite them. Better for her to learn the skill every time than have you do everything for her

I took some grapes to DD at uni the other week. She was standing there chatting to her housemates, chopping her grapes in half, before popping them unwashed into her mouth

Not to mention that at kids parties there are often smaller siblings who are too young to know any better.

nope.
I invite 12 kids from ds/dds class, then 12 kids come, no siblings. I only see that on mn

blackberry, my youngest is now 10, and so I am talking about when my kids were younger.

No, at the time it did not occur to me.
I do not feel the need to grovel about what I might or might not do if I now had 4/5 year olds. All my posts were in the past tense, quite clearly stated that 'I was probably' indicating that it was not recent. I didn't feel the need to spell out that the party of 4/5 year olds wasn't yesterday.

and back the party, no, funnily enough the younger siblings who came to pick up didn't run round the house, find the dining/room kitchen and hoover up stray grapes, from the floor - because the food was already put away so we could serve the cake..

One of my youngest dds friends whose mum is a close friend, now has a toddler sibling, the only one in our circle, all other friends are more of an age. We are very wary when she is round, as we are very aware that our house is no longer toddler proof, and if it occurred, that would include grapes.

DD is 9 and I still cut them up, if a teacher or midday assistant see's uncut grapes in a kids lunch box at school, they are removed. A nearby school had a child who choked and died on uncut grapes, so they are pretty hot on it.

I only cut them for toddlers, my 3 year old has started having them whole now although she always had the odd whole one in the past under supervision. It's good to be cautious but at 6 it seems a tad over protective and it will make her nervous needlessly imo.