What she did you stop chopping grapes for LO’s?

[Anney28]

As above ^^ DD is 4, soon to be 5. She loves grapes. I always half or quarter them if big.

She’s gone back to school and said she had grapes for snack and said the teacher didn’t chop them.

Is this too young? Or ami being over paranoid?

Been a nervous wreck since me son choked on food whilst I was driving (not grapes). Had to stop the car on the side of the road and perform the Heimlich manoeuvre!!

I still quarter DS5's grapes and cherry tomatoes!

About 3yo, BUT I only let her eat them sat down in front of me and I make sure she crunches them as soon as in mouth. That way I feel more confident if she gets given them elsewhere.

My two youngest are 10 and 6. I still chop their grapes... and all fruit.

Thanks all. I was just surprised that they weren’t chopped at school probably to do with covid and not having the facilities to chop them in their bubble space but in that case I’d avoid grapes altogether!

I try to encourage mine to bite them, and sometimes give them whole even though DS2 is not quite two, but I usually cut them.

I wouldn't give him hard sweets, no!

Blueberries are a bit softer and the skin is different. Grapes are specifically risky in that when the skin gets wet it's sort of sticky and can lodge in the windpipe. I do chop cherry tomatoes too, although mainly because they explode everywhere.

IIRC officially you're meant to do it until five but I think once they understand to bite into them rather than chucking them in their mouths whole it's fine to stop. Most people don't do it until five anyway.

Still chopping for eldest aged 9 here! I’ve also drummed it into them that grapes should be bitten into and never eaten in one mouthful. I’m paranoid after a bloody terrifying choking episode during weaning though!

9 and 6 and I’ve only just stopped chopping for youngest. I’m strict on them biting grapes in half though, so a whole one never goes in their mouth

I chop them for 8 and 6yo dc. A colleague at the hospital I work at was involved in trying to resuscitate an 8yo who choked in a grape and sadly died. Hearing her talk about it was enough to convince me to carry on chopping grapes.

I cut DD’s at 3.5. I have taught her to ALWAYS bite a grape/blueberry/tomato/Malteser etc first just in case I’m not with her and she eats them.

It takes 2 seconds to do, and I’d never forgive myself if anything happened.

9/10 the risk are just too great.

Mine are 14 and nearly 12 and we still chop grapes! They make a fruit salad for lunch then at school it looks like a nice pot of chopped fruit rather than having an unhinged mother 🤣.

8 & 12 and still chopping grapes up and actually the 12 year old choked on something the other day so feel vindicated!!! 🙈

You're being paranoid.

There's no need to cut grapes for a child that age; serve them whole. It's important to teach children to bite and chew food properly; because that adds saliva to the food and starts the digestive process.

Just stopped now for my youngest aged 8

I don't think I have ever chopped a grape, but I didn't know you had to when DS was small. He's an adult now. But I think I would probably be chopping them still at 4.

*now that I know the risks (pressed post too soon)

Ds is nearly 7 and I still chop them.

I'll probably make him a chopped up fruit salad on his 18th birthday 😂

Grapes scare me!

DD is 7 and I still quarter them, unless I’m sitting with her and watching her like a hawk
She’s a fidget arse and I don’t trust her to sit still and eat them properly

I stopped when my youngest dc was 6. A year later she choked on a grape. I had to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre, and it was still stuck. I turned her upside down and whacked her back, and it came out. We don’t eat grapes any more in our family. We could have lost her.

I've never chopped grapes. I taught my kids to just bite them instead of putting the whole thing in their mouths.

Oh and if anyone thinks their kid wouldn’t: dd was sitting nicely at the table, not messing around or moving, and I’d taught her to bite them in half. We didn’t think she’d choke on one either. It makes my blood run cold thinking about it.

avocadoze that sounds terrifying. I nearly choked on a grape this evening and I'm 38 ... I'd literally seconds before been reminding DDs about not talking with your mouth full to avoid choking. I put a whole grape in my mouth AND BIT INTO IT straight away - as so many posters say they've taught their kids to do - somehow it shot straight to the back of my mouth and I felt it near my windpipe - an absolutely hideous couple of seconds then I managed to cough it out. Home alone (no other adult) with 3 kids and it flashed through my mind I could have died in front of them. I'll be chopping up my own grapes from now on...

My friend is a paediatrician, she says she still cuts up grapes for her 12 year old. She's known so many kids to come in with grapes and other things stuck that there's no way she couldn't cut them up. She said there's just no shifting them when they're stuck.

When she started sucking the inside of the grape off and leaving the skins - whole the end got bitten off and the middle sucked out, skin left.

I still cut the grapes in half (mainly quarters) for my 4&7 year old girls (also can’t see me stopping anytime soon).
Also cut them for our pet rat as choking is a thing for them too,