4yr old eating in the car

[itsturtlesallthewaydown]

I'm wondering if MN can help resolve a debate I have with my DH.

I think it's a choking risk for a 4yr old to eat whilst driving and so they should never be given food in a car. If they want a snack you should stop at a service station. My DH says it's OK to give them food whilst driving.

What does everyone else think?

YABU: It's ok for children to eat in a car.
YANBU: It's a choking risk and children should never eat in a car.

Yes. My 5YO has been in a high backed booster since she was 4. It’s more upright than our dining chairs.

First thing I do when I've got a long drive with the 6 and 4 year old is pack them a snacky lunch... Buys me at least 30 mins of peace 🤣

I think it's ok on long journeys - I would quite often give my daughter a blueberry muffin type thing, or a melty stick when she was about 18 months old (to keep her quiet and entertained more than anything 🤣) and now if we're going on a long journey she can have apple slices or carrot or cucumber sticks etc.
I don't think it's a good habit though if they're say, having breakfast in the car every morning, and I can't stand messy cars because the children have been eating! Not a safety thing though.

I agree with you completely and I don't give food in the car but I'm also very aware that I'm in the minority and most people don't seem to worry about this. I don't do it because there's no need and I'm not comfortable with it but to each their own.

I don't think you are wrong. I don't see it as a greater choking risk but I do see it as having a greater change of not having someone respond to it in time.

True choking is silent so there is no noise to alert you to the problem, by the time it takes you 30 seconds to notice and then the time to pull over, time to get out of the car and then get them out of the seat, that's a long time between breaths for the child.

What?

I've never heard of refusing a DC food in the car for choking??

Poor kid would be starving or thirsty on a long trip!

If you had to keep stopping you'd never make it across the country in a day.

As a child I started choking in the back of the car, luckily my sister was sitting next to me and we were in a residential area so easier for my parents to stop. However I still rember the panic and difficulty so I don't allow eating in the car while it's moving.
I also think for general wellbeing its not good to eat in the car as I think children then associate being in the car with snacking.

Yabu.

Why you are not supposed to drive hours without stopping it's dangerous and not good for your back and circulation. Stop about every hour job done.....do you really think constant eating is about starvation

Seems over the top for a 4 yo. I wouldn't give a toddler food but a snack for a 4 yo seems fine to me?

In recent years the most common cause of children choking was hotdogs. Brain damage can occur in 4 minutes how long to notice they are choking pull the car over safely get out, get the child out and start back slaps?
How many people know where to slap how often and what to do when it doesn't work....how many would put their finger in to the child's mouth? Even a twix/crisp/ similar wrapper bitten to open (common with older children) is a nightmare as it sticks to saliva and doesn't slap out that's been the worst I've felt with. Mind you a square Duplo block was tricky

I never did a long trip without stopping the the usual meal times, I found it preferable to starving my DC

My daughter is 5 but she definitely had snacks in the car. I took the same precautions with grapes as I would have at home and didn't let her have those spherical lolly things but she would often be ravenous after school so I'd rather she had something light in the car and not be miserable until tea was ready.

Give me strength.

At 4 I think it's perfectly safe to give them a snack in the car.

Although I never did it and still don't, because there is no eating in my car due to crumbs, wrappers, smears and general grossness.

@jannier I definitely wouldn’t let my kids eat a hot dog in the car and I would hope that no one would! That would be same category as grapes and make me nervous full stop, I don’t think I let my DD eat a hotdog at all until she was 5 and even then I wasn’t pleased about it because of the choking thing but also because the ingredients are grim. What you say about twix etc makes sense too. But I still don’t see much risk in something like a yoghurt pouch, puffy crisps and drink of water for a child of 4 sat in an upright carseat so am more than happy to give those on long drives if it buys some peace 😀

Mine always eat in the car. Car seats get messy but that’s the worst that has happened.

A 4 year old could be a school aged child, who will eat lunch in a hall full of kids with little supervision.you are being ott.

Choking being one of the leading causes of death in under 5s reflects that very few under 5s die, and many that do will have complex care needs that mean they have risk of choking/aspiration.

The risk of a healthy, NT child choking eating lunch (assuming you've cut grapes etc) is very very low.

Unless its a long journey, I don't understand why kids need to eat in the car? Mine never did! They won't starve! I look after children who live a 5 minute car journey from my house and they all ask if they have a snack in the car.
Also, if you're driving and a child starts to choke in the back of the car it can be difficult to spot- choking is mostly silent- si by the time you've managed to pull over safely, it could be too late.

@jannier my kids range from 2 to 16 always let them eat. My youngest is an awful traveller and screams in the car, snacks give me peace. Being a distracted driver is a much greater risk.

No eating allowed in my car. But that’s because I’m precious about my car and won’t stand for the mess. They have water bottles and we stop for food. We’ve driven all over Europe, including from the U.K. to Norway and back again and nobody has died of starvation yet. Constant snacking is neither necessary nor particularly healthy.

I’d also like to echo the pp who lost an aunt to choking in her 50s. I lost my grandfather at a similar age also due to choking, in a restaurant. It’s not uncommon. So describing it as ‘vanishingly rare’ isn’t helpful.

I find it overly paranoid when people go on about choking in the car, but TBH I discourage eating in the car because cleaning mushed up food out of car seats is a huge pain in the arse, especially if they are still in the harnessed stage and it has the potential to get stuck in moving parts.

I might be overly paranoid but my son choked (not in the car) when he was 5. Of it wasn't for a trained first aider nearby he probably would have died. So call it paranoia if you wish, but when you are looking at your child being backslapped not knowing if they are going to survive, it hits you hard. DS is an adult now and I am still haunted by the incident.

I tend to not let my kids eat in car at all. They are almost 6 and 8. I do not like the prospect of driving the roads here which are mostly country ones and then trying to stop safely to help a child choking. Yes it could happen at home anytime. But with acceleration, bumps on roads and braking etc. I don't like the risks. Soft foods only really given. They don't need to eat all day, they get fed before or after car journeys. Only exceptions are long journeys. Which is where we've gave them softer foods. Each to their own though. Everyone will have a preference. It's up to each parent for their own kids.

Do you have health anxiety? A 4 year old no being allowed to eat in the car is ott