choking

[Beatrice]

DD (7 months) is refusing to be spoon fed at the moment so I'm giving her finger food. It's working well in that quite a lot is getting into her mouth, but I'm terrified that she is going to choke and not sure what to do if she does. She of course is fearless and will happily cram large pieces of bread, pasta etc into her mouth. Apart from the obvious thing of always being with her when she eats, is there anything else I should be doing to make sure she doesn't choke? And what do I do if she does?

Bang her on the back? I know it will be messy but could you not give her very thick pureed food that she can pick up with her hands. Also, have you tried giving her a spoon to hold? I am not being funny. My three ds's can bearly hold a spoon now (ds2, aged 6, still tries to get away with using his fingers!) but my dd could use a spoon beautifully at about 7 months -REALLY! Also, I have always found that if mine had a spoon in their hands, they allowed me to spoon feed them but not if I didn't let them think they were doing it. Try that.

One of the best things I got was a pair of cheap food scissors. They allowed me to cut anything up into really small pieces quickly. I still use them now (12 mo) for things like meat that DS could choke on.

The Heimlich Maneuver.

i'm with colinsmommy on this,my dd2 would only have finger food very early and after a few choking episodes I started chopping everything into baby bitesize pieces and putting them on her high chair tray. She thought this was absoloutly great and lots of fun picking it all up bit by bit. She still won't have anything mushy now e.g weetabox readybrek, yoghurts. she spends ages eating food but is more than happy if she can do it herself, she's 17 months now.

Thanks for the link KandtheG - I hope it doesn't come to that because it looks compicated! Also a bit confusing that it says don't slap them on the back - that's what everyone else has told me to do. Lonelymum, I do give her a spoon - or three - every meal, and she can actually get some food to her mouth with it. It does allow me to get the occassional mouthful in, but she's really only happy doing it herself.

I just renewed my CPR certification a couple of weeks ago. I am surprised that the Heimlich site shows the abdomen thrust. That is not what the Red Cross advised. I don't know how to do a proper link yet but here is a page describing what I was taught to do.
www.cpr-pro.com/infantchoking.html
And, back blows really do work. Had to use them on ds after he choked on a teething biscuit. Now I only give him the little rice cake ones that sort of dissolve. I also bought one of the mesh feeder things to use for pieces of fruit, etc.

had a nasty choking incident the other day with dd and a rice cake biscuity thing that usually dissolves.
it didnt dissolve fast enuf and she gulped down a huge chunk i think and cchoked, went red for, maybe 10-15 secs? i panicked and thumped her hard on the back according to dh. i think i remained reasonably calm and pried my fingers in her throat to try and remove offending rice cracker but culdnt see it. then gave her two firm thumps on back. she threw up about 6 oz of milk along with the cracker.

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Agree not to use heimlich on baby. Your health visitor should be able to show you how to hold the baby along your arm whilst slapping firmly on the back between the shoulder blades. This was taught at my post-natal class. DH went on a ST john's AMbulance course to learn first aid for children (4 hours on a saturday, approx. £30).

St John's Ambulance:
www.sja.org.uk
08700 10 49 50

Thanks everyone. Woodstock, what's the mesh feeder thing you mentioned?

It's a neat little device that has a mesh pocket that you can put biscuits or fresh fruit in. There is a handle that snaps closed over the bottom. Quite ingenious really. We've only used it a few times so far as I just got it recently but ds had no problems with it.

The mesh feeder things are fantastic! We have one by Munchkin and one called the original baby feeder. The Original one is better (the mesh bags are replaceable) but the munchkin one is bright colors and the handle is better for chewing on. Our favorite trick is to put ice cubes in one, but we do frozen banana and bits of fruit and whatnot to. Saves trying to hold onto something cold and slimy for her...

Where can I get one?

had a quick read through the threads and ds now 12 months has nearly choked a few times once on a pound coin which a freind of mine gave to him thinking he wouldnt put it in his mouth if there to large to lay across the arm turn them over on to there lap and give a short sharp slap on the back finger in mouth and check and repeat if needed the last time i did this my bil said i made ds cry to my reply was if hes crying hes breathing and that all that mattered at that time

ds once choked on some food during a meal. I think he was about 8mo. He didn't splutter, just gagged and went purple, his lips went quite blue. I quickly took him out of his highchair and started to turn him over on my lap, but didn't need to go any further than that, because moving him must have been enough to dislodge the obstruction and it came out. To my surprise he wasn't particularly distressed and wanted to get right back into the highchair to continue with his meal! I had difficulty feeding him, because my hands were shaking so much!

IME, very large chunks of food are often better than very small, as the baby will gnaw on the larger chunks and scrape or mush off bits that they can cope with, whereas smaller pieces go in whole and can be choked upon. I don't remember what it was that ds choked on (you think at the time that you'll never forget! ) but it was something relatively innocuous, like a piece of cooked carrot or potato.

The only exceptions are things like cake or bread, which can be squashed smaller and crammed into the mouth. Those I would cut small.

IMO, thick purees and chunky finger foods, plus a spoon for the baby to hold, are the way to go right now.

the feeder I got is the Munchkin Fresh Food Feeder. I found it at a Target store. You can also go to
www.munchkininc.com.

Beatrice, if you worry about these things you may like to take a pediatric first aid course? they normally last for 2 days and you practice first aid for chocking and resucitaion with baby dolls. I have read many things about how to act in an emergency but until you try it in the doll you realise that things are not as straight forward as they look.

bump!