I think my friends think I am mad for cutting up grapes for my toddler - what is the general feeling?

[GColdtimer]

I met my friends this week and they all had pots of grapes. They were sharing them around and I wanted to cut dds (18 months) in half. I felt a bit silly though because most of their dcs were comping away on whole grapes and I thought I detected a slight bemusement as I insisted on biting them in half before she had them.

Am I being a bit PFB about this? What do you all do?

Not PFB at all.
They are a big choking hazard.

I cut them too. You may be mad but not for doing that.

No I'm sure you are supposed to chop grapes up as can choke easily. You stick to your guns lady.

A friend told me that every year one or two children - much older than 18mths, choke to death because a whole grape is the perfect size to get stuck in their windpipes. I haven't seen the documented figures for this but it makes sense to me - I still chop up grapes for ds1 and he's 3.2! Spose I will stop one day! I know people who do the same.

Don't feel silly

I have never personally cut my kids grapes up, but the pediatric first aid course I have just completed advocates cutting.

I still cut mine up for ds who is 2.

I still cut them up for DS (nearly 3) but I think I am the only person I know who does. I just think the risk is too high (and I am emphatically not a paranoid, wrap-them-in-cotton-wool parent -- the number of bruises on DS is testament to that).

You are 100% correct. When my DD was small there was a case publicized of a child choking on a grapes. I can't remember what age I stopped cutting/biting DDs grapes - probably 3 or thereabouts

I cut them up .once saw my baby brother choke on one it was scary .He was ok though

Here you go. Def cut for under twos.

www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2005/02/04/hchoke04.xml

I still cut them up for my dd who is 4.6 . esp when she takes them to school for tuck.

You are quite right, I always cut up my dds grapes and she is 3!

show this to your friends

www.ahealthyme.com/topic/chokingreport

but grapes come in all sorts of sizes don't they?

I always cut up grapes.

No - no PFB at all - I insist all the mums at playgroup cut them up - they think I'm mad, but I'll go to great pains to explain.

There's something about the skin on a grape that doesn't start to dissolve in saliva unlike most other foods - so even a biscuit or a crisp might start to disintegrate, but a grape will just sit in the windpipe and not budge - it's not slippy either.

I'll cut them for my 2.5 year old, but not any more for my 5 year old.

I cut them too, read an article last year of a three year that choked to death, just not worth the risk.

No not unreasonable imo.

I now even though ds is 5 keep reminding him to eat them slowly .I give them to him on the stalk to slow him down a bit.

Thanks for the reassurance, will carry on doing so. And thanks for the links. I think I might pass them on. Its difficult because I don't want appear bossy, they are all intelligent people after all. On the other hand, would rather they know the risks.

My nanny used to cut EVERYTHING in half for me, even when I went to visit her in the old people's home when I was on holiday from uni she'd give me half a polo mint, broken up. Makes me just thinking about her. Bless.

She was definitely being PFB about me (and I wasn't even hers!). You aren't. But I must admit DS (17 months) usually wolfs his grapes down whole, as he is always so flippin hungry he isn't impressed by half a grape at a time... A whole bunch in one go is what he's after!

I think you are doing the right thing. Many Mums I know wear flipancy abut safety as some sort of badge of honour, but I think it is plain stupid not to take reasonable safety precautions.

Message withdrawn

am resolutely not neurotic, but do cut grapes up for DD after reading on here how much of a choking hazard grapes are, and are just the right size to block a childs' windpipe

I have never cut up a grape for any of my children, has never entered by head. And the third is only 1! Do you cut up soft-fruit too - like strawberries, blueberries, rasps and the like?

Grapes do come in all sorts of sizes, but I think whipping out a tape measure to check the size of individual grapes probably would count as neurotic behaviour...

Am loving the juxtaposition of

Many Mums I know wear flipancy abut safety as some sort of badge of honour

and

tbut hen i am devil may care

in adjacent posts.

twofalls - my ds is big now, but that is something I always think about when my friends dd,who is 4, is eating grapes !!