Do you ever get over the paranoia after your child has choked?

[linspins]

My little boy, almost 2 1/2, choked on his tea on wednesday evening. He spat some out, and then cried a lot. It was a very distressed cry, I hadn't heard before. He got very clammy and sweaty too. I put him in car and took him to local doctors. The receptionist said they had no appointments (!!!!surely the words toddler and choking in the same sentence warrant seeing asap?) but he seemed to have recovered mostly by then, and was chatting to me.
So I took him home.
Thursday morning, he was pale, listless, and breathing a bit odd, so I took him to A&E. They examined him and did a chest x-ray, and found one lung wasn't working properly, probably due to a blockage.
He was put on oxygen, has intravenous antibiotics, and wired up to monitor his oxygen saturation. Then popped in an ambulance (blue light on) and whisked up to St Evelina's in London for a general anaesthetic and operation to remove blockage. The camera found a whole pea, which was blocking the right lung tube, which he must have breathed in when he choked. Once it was removed he was perky again quite quickly, although groggy from anaesthetic.

Now he's fine, but I am absolutely paranoid about food/choking. He's not good at sitting still while he eats, and children do wander, especially if we are picnicing in the garden etc. I keep trying to explain to him not to talk with his mouth full, and not to muck about at the table.

I will never forget the horrible experience of having to hold/cuddle him while they administered gas to put him under. He fought and cried under the little mask, it was horrendous.

How long will it be before I am not watching his every move? And worrying about every mouthful?

I had to do the whole 'choking baby' procedure with DD1- lay her down my thigh, sharp slaps between shoulders etc- when she was a crawling baby. She had found the only piece of rubbish on the entire floor (a clear piece of plastic) and was going purple choking on it. My friend had hoovered everywhere in anticipation of our visit- the stupid plastic was invisible and under the coffee table. Thankfully she got it up and started wailing- the terror came afterwards when the adrenaline subsided!
Choking is rare, if you hover around him he may form anxiety about eating. The memory will pass, honestly :)

Choking is horrible and I don't think it is as rare as people think. My dc choked when about 1.5 years - luckily enough I had just completed paediatric First Aid course and knew what to do.

When I was about 8 I choked on a piece of salami and my mother couldn't initially get it out, in the end it came out with hard slaps on my back. I was blue in my face.

At the school where I work we have had a number of choking incidents, luckily always with a good ending. Not even sure if the parents were involved as it was hot school dinner.

Lots of people are not even aware of the key choking foods (American Association of Paediatricians got a list somewhere on their website), to name a few key ones: peanut butter pure or on bread without butter can cause choking, hot dogs are perfect size for choking, cherry tomatoes, grapes, salami, speck, etc.

I think once it has happened once, you learn to live with it but you are always on your guard.

I would complain to your GP though about the fact that you weren't seen.