When I think back to childhood, I often wonder who was at the control panel in my little brain. Like, really, I’m pretty sure I wandered around on autopilot for a good portion of my young life, not thinking at all about what I was doing or why I was doing it. But that’s childhood for you.
And that’s why parents need to stay vigilant. Kids aren’t always the best at making good choices for themselves. Parents can think ahead to keep them safe from themselves as well as the world at large.
Feeding a hungry toddler at snack time isn’t nearly as straightforward as it ought to be.
They have their wants and their dislikes, and they feel them strongly. Trying to find something that fits into that window and is also healthy can be a real battle.
Grapes are a particularly good snack because they’re sweet, healthy, and already bite size.
However, we’ve been hearing for a few years now that grapes should always be cut up before giving them to little kids.
And always lengthwise, to prevent choking, because the width of a grape is about the same as a child’s airway.
But many parents push back against that advice, with some saying that it’s a way of raising kids to be scared of food.
Well, this reminder was posted on Facebook: An X-ray of a grape lodged in the throat of a 5-year-old.
This poor kid had to have it removed surgically, under general anaesthetic. “He is very lucky that part of his airway was open or else this could have ended badly,” the post read.
As bad as that is, emergency room doctors have seen worse.
Between 1999 and 2013, more than 2,100 kids in the U.S. choked to death, and food accounted for more than half of fatal choking events in kids under the age of 5.
Grapes are the third most common cause of choking in kids after hot dogs and candy.
That has something to do with how popular hot dogs, candy, and grapes are in kids’ diets, but also with how well they block airways.
Because they’re smooth skinned and round, grapes form a tight seal in an airway, and they’re difficult to dislodge with first aid techniques.
So taking the extra time to slice grapes in half for kids can really be worth it.
And remember, those ER docs only see the worst cases, and not the scary near-misses.
“We only see the tip of the iceberg, we only see it when it is not alleviated,” Dr. Jamie Cooper told The Guardian .
Another ER attendant, Birmingham Children’s Hospital’s Tina Newton, told the paper that “it is a definite problem, we have recognized it for years; I have seen children die from choking on grapes.”
In a paper, Dr. Cooper broke down a few cases where a child choked on a grape.
One, involving a 17-month-old boy, ended in tragedy despite everybody’s best efforts. “The parents and other people were there and did everything appropriately to try and dislodge the obstruction,” he said . “Experienced people still failed to dislodge the obstruction with non-invasive first aid manoeuvres.” Despite all those efforts, the child didn’t make it.
So cutting up grapes is a small thing to do that can save tiny lives.
If time is a factor, there’s a dad out there who shared his technique for slicing grapes in bunches.
Basically, he put the grapes he wanted to cut between two plates and then sliced through them with a long knife, all in one fell swoop. That’s a huge time saver!
