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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To remind you that real choking is silent

67 replies

54321nought · 05/08/2021 18:35

A child choked in front of me on the train last week. The parents were chatting together over her head. I pointed out she was choking and the father banged her on the back and she coughed up the food. They hadn't noticed. She was about 3 or 4. They probably thought they didn't have to watch her eat any more. So I am just reminding you that real choking is completely silent

OP posts:

Mrsmorton · 05/08/2021 23:09

I saw a child choking in a restaurant once, I leapt up and ran across (not a natural athlete), by the time I'd got there she had thankfully coughed it out. All my "friends" laughed at me and if I'm honest, I've never been so hurt.

I was delighted not to need to lay hands on but so sad that my reaction was mocked.

Great thread OP.

carcarbinks · 05/08/2021 23:12

My DS choked when he was about 10. We were eating dinner and I noticed he had his head over his plate and water was coming out of his mouth. It took a few seconds for me to realise he was choking. I hit him on the back about 8 times before a lump of chicken flew out of his mouth. He’d tried having a drink to dislodge it but was making no sound at all. When it was over I just cried with relief.

Waveifyouknowme · 05/08/2021 23:17

Ice is also a risk, my dd say quietly choking in a restaurant on a piece of ice, no one noticed, I came out of the toilet and just knew. Very grateful I only needed a wee, something that flashes back

Waveifyouknowme · 05/08/2021 23:18

My dd sat

LibrariesGiveUsPower45321 · 05/08/2021 23:49

This is so important

FoxyBadger · 06/08/2021 00:09

I choked eating breakfast in a hotel. Worst experience of my life. DH although First Aud trained was entirely unaware. I grabbed his drink and he sort of realised something was wrong but was frozen in horror. Someone ran across restaurant and did Heimlich manoeuvre. It was horrific.
I did not cough or make a sound, I couldn't.
Effect of this was major anxiety that resulted in me basically not eating properly and losing 3 stone in weight. I needed medication and counselling.
The person who did the Heimlich manoeuvre on me tried to force Coke on me at the time and I brushed them off but when I ended up seeing a gastroenterologist due to the fact that my anxiety was stopping me swallowing solid food, he told me Coke is good when choking. In his words, " It will either force it down or bring it up".
I don't drink fizzy drinks but kept Coke in the fridge for months after that.
I feel sad that I have absolutely no idea who saved me.
This thread has also brought back all those awful feelings...
I watch my DC like a hawk. Probably not healthy but hate anyone eating steak in front of me. Same with grapes, nuts, etc

Toffeewhirl · 06/08/2021 00:41

When I was a child (probably around nine or ten), I made my grandmother laugh whilst she was eating a chocolate. It went the wrong way and she started choking. I was terrified and had no idea what to do apart from patting her on the back. Thankfully, she managed to clear it herself, but it could have ended badly and I was very shaken up by it. As a result, I have always been vigilant about looking out for choking hazards with my children (cut up grapes, insisted they sat down when eating, etc) and I still don't like leaving them to eat alone, even now they're 15 and 21!

334bu · 06/08/2021 00:48

.* My instructor said it was the first aid skill she had used most in real life, and all but once the food was cleared by the back slaps before needing to move to the thrusts*

Back slap can work and was my first instinctive reaction when a child waiting at the front of the line outside my classroom choked silently as I approached him. My reaction took both him and me totally by surprise(Adrenaline is a weird thing) , I grabbed him by the back of his shirt, threw him over my knee and thumped him on his back, resulting in a large caramel shooting like a bullet down the corridor. It was perhaps shock , but once on his feet he simply turned , as if nothing had happened, went into the room and sat down at his desk, while the rest of the class filed in with a white faced teacher bringing up the rear.

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 06/08/2021 00:55

Where they okay.

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 06/08/2021 00:57

Oh sorry just seen. Thank God you were there. It was obviously fate that you sat the same carriage and so near to them.

purpleme12 · 06/08/2021 01:01

Oh Jesus this thread has really scared me

NotMyCat · 06/08/2021 01:18

Also don't eat boiled sweets in the car. I choked on one as a child - my mum was driving and had to brake sharply, the sweet was one of those round boiled fruit ones in the tin snd got lodged in my throat. Managed to clear it but I've never eaten sweets in the car again!

Maggiesfarm · 06/08/2021 01:32

@Nixandwotsit

Thank you for this, people do need to bear it in mind.

I echo that.

How frightening for you and more so for the child; terribly distressing for the parents too. I feel a rising panic just thinking about it! Gosh you really cannot take your eyes off little ones for long. Brrrrrrrr....

StillMedusa · 06/08/2021 01:40

I choked when I was ten, and my Granny somehow managed the strength to turn me upside down and whallop it out. I've never forgotten the feeling of not being able to breathe.

DS2 choked on a banana aged 3 and was blue before we got it out..

I won't let anyone eat hard (boiled sweets) unless they crunch them straight away..even my now adult kids, and will be cutting my baby grandsons food up tiny until he is at least 18!

Choking is my no 1 fear

LanisHouseLot · 06/08/2021 02:05

This has reminded of some sweets that were popular circa 2000 - a kind of shot of jelly that kids would suck into their mouth in one go. They had garish packaging and were sold in newsagents. In the end they stopped selling them because a few children had choked on them and died. They were so sticky and goopy that backslaps etc did nothing to dislodge .

pollyglot · 06/08/2021 05:44

The staff where I used to work were all First Aid Trained, but when one colleague choked on a watermelon seed, going quietly blue, everyone just stood there, frozen with fright. I managed to do the heimlich and she coughed it up. Very scary though. A previous, retired, colleague, in his 80s, choked to death on an Easter egg.

BetsyBigNose · 06/08/2021 10:10

@Mrsmorton "I saw a child choking in a restaurant once, I leapt up and ran across (not a natural athlete), by the time I'd got there she had thankfully coughed it out. All my "friends" laughed at me and if I'm honest, I've never been so hurt."

Thank you to you and all of the others on this thread who have leapt into action in these situations, I hope I would be alert enough to do the same. How sad that your "friends" mocked your efforts, rather than praising your quick thinking. I'm sure it would have been a very different story if they had been the ones choking. I know I would have been impressed rather than amused, I think your actions were amazing!

Thankfully, I have never witnessed anyone choking, but thanks to @54321nought and all of the others who have provided advice on what to do in this situation, I now feel that I would be confident in what I was looking out for and how to administer back slaps and/or the Heimlich manoeuvre. Perhaps sharing this knowledge on Mumsnet will one day save a life - wouldn't that be something!

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