Son just choked

[helpingdvsurvivors]

He's 17 months old. He was drawing with jumbo crayons and bit the end off one. Got lodged in his throat. Took me a good 30 seconds of hard slaps to his back to get it out. His back is bright red now. So shaken up. I am shaking. Anyone else ever experienced this? Just terrifying. The look of terror in his face was awful :(

Been there in a restaurant with Dd (the same age) who was given a sweet by the waitress. Got stuck in her throat and tried to slap it out. This didn’t work so had to put my finger down her throat. She bit me so hard the nerve in the finger is damaged and the tip is still a bit pins-and-needles 4 months later!

Hope you are not feeling too upset. Panic over now. Everything is ok.

When my son was around 2/3, we were on holiday and I let him have some sweets in the room. All of a sudden his body went stiff and no sound came out of his mouth. The look in his eyes stays with me. I was doing back slaps in the room when I realised that I might not be able to get it up. I ran down the corridor and downstairs to reception with him hanging over my arm, trying to get it to come out and shouting for an ambulance. On the floor of reception, a crowd gathered and the sweet finally came out of his mouth. Was the worst experience ever and that few minutes is ingrained in my brain and makes my blood run cold whenever I think of it. I cut my daughters grapes into four and no sweets like that were allowed in my house for many years, and definitely not anywhere near my daughter. I saw a toddler with a lollipop the other day and felt sick.

Yes it,s scary, but it sounds like you knew what to do.

Yes. My then 10 month old chocked on pasta. I'll never forget him going blue.
Well done for staying calm.

Always worth doing a simple first aid course. So you learn about slaps and chest thrusts ect. You never know when you will need it o relly on it.

Yes with my son when he was 10, the slaps didn't work.

I had to give him abdominal thrusts previously known as the heimlich maneuver.

It was fucking horrible. That silence that they have. No gagging or coughing.

Just wife eyed and silent.

I will never forget that.

Oh goodness, you must be in bits. Well done though, he's safe and you saved his life. The redness will fade. Have a cup of tea and try to calm down. It made my blood run cold just reading that

DD choked on a Kinder toy at a similar age. Unknown to me, older DC had left it on the floor behind the sofa and when DD was crawling she picked it up and swallowed a piece. She started coughing, gasped/inhaled, and then went silent. Slapped her back and couldn't get it up, DH took over and told me to ring 999 because it wasn't coming up. While I was on the phone with the lady DD coughed and was sick, toy came up with it, and started wailing her little head off. I burst into tears, the woman on the phone was lovely and reassured me that good strong crying means good lungfulls of air. She still had to go to hospital to get checked over but I have never been so frightened or so relieved.

I'd recommend a basic first aid course to all parents, grandparents, carers, etc. A lot of them are available online at the moment via live link or prerecorded video.

When dd was this age I thought she'd swallowed something, I saw her put it in her mouth, rushed over, did the back slaps etc but nothing came out. Panicked that she'd swallowed it so rang 111. They told me that if you've needed to do back slaps they need to be checked out. This is advice given only a year ago. I would ring them because I can't remember why she said it.

It sounds like you did an incredible job, well done OP, it's not easy to stay calm and remember what to do in those situations. Hope you are both okay, lots of cuddles and something sugary for you for the shock

They told me that if you've needed to do back slaps they need to be checked out. This is advice given only a year ago. I would ring them because I can't remember why she said it.

Yes we were told this on our first aid course too.

It is the most terrifying thing ever. Just thinking about the time when my dd was 12 months and choked, it makes me shake just thinking about it now.

I would ring them because I can't remember why she said it

It's because babies have been killed by panicked parents slapping their babies very hard.
You are supposed to get them checked out afterwards.

My dad choked on mash potato. It plugged her throat. She went bright red with bulging eyes. I couldn't slap her back properly as she was strapped into highchair. I was desperate to get her out. I eventually managed it and lay her face down on knee and slapped her hard. She had a red back.

I then in desperation turned her upside down and thankfully it came out.

Afterwards I learnt in paediatric first aid I should have given her chest thrusts.

• DD

Aw it's awful. My then 9mo choked on a bit of chicken. I got it out fairly quickly with backslaps but I was really shaken.

When Dd was about 8 months she choked on a large sequin she found on the floor. It was so scary and the first and thankfully the last time I’ve experienced it. It shook me up for a few days!

Happened to my DD when she was about four with one of those Maoam ball sweets. Absolutely terrifying.

I'm glad he's ok now. That must have been so scary. I bet you're really shaken up. There was an incident when my DD was a baby where I let go of her pram and it somehow blew face forward down on to a rock hard floor. Luckily she was strapped in and didn't touch the floor herself but I cried every time I thought about it for about a year afterwards. I kept thinking about what could have happened if she wasn't strapped in.

Op.
What time did this happen? Usual advice with a child is to go to hospital in case they have damaged their throat/windpipe.
If it is recent I would phone 111 and ask advice as you don't want to go to hospital at the moment if you don't have to.

Yes it’s the most scary experience but I just went into automatic mode and did what I learnt on a first aid course. My husband was running around flapping. We had a serious talk after about when your the only people there you can’t flap you have to deal with it. I recommend all parents go on a first aid course as you can’t rely on someone else to help your child.

Not my child but i was babysitting when i was about 17 and the little girl (3) started choking, all i remember is throwing her over my leg and patting her back, i was so scared not knowing what to do and it wasnt dislodging so i ran to the neighbours with her because i knew that the man was a retired policeman and thankfully he dislodged it within seconds, but she had to go to hospital as she was blue and was going in and out of consciousness.
She was okay :)
Was one of the most scary moments of my life

Never ever put your fingers down their throat. You risk pushing the obstruction further down which will make it even harder to get out.

You must be so shaken you poor thing. Hope all ok x

Urgh, this happened to toddler DS with a small piece of apple. It was terrifying! I was extremely lucky as I'd done a baby/toddler first aid course literally the week before, so I knew what to do. Didn't stop it scaring the crap out of me though!