The Best Ways To Save A Baby From Choking

Choking is the inability to breathe because the trachea is blocked, constricted, or swollen shut.

Choking is a medical emergency. When a person is choking, air cannot reach the lungs. If the airways cannot be cleared, death follows rapidly.

Anyone can choke, but choking is more common in children than in adults. Choking is a common cause of accidental death in young children.

If you have kids, than you have probably thought of every possible threat that may risk your baby’s health. For many parents, choking is the biggest fear of them all. But, if you if you know how to identify the very first signs of chocking, you will most certainly solve the problem without panicking.

Risks of choking

It is important to know which foods put your child at a risk for choking. Be careful when feeding your baby with   grapes, hot dogs, blueberries, and other similarly-sized foods. Here is a good tip for you.

You can chop the food for your child into bite-size pieces and make things a lot easier. In this way it will be easy for the food to find its way past the airways without causing any additional trouble.

Infants are young toddlers who are still learning how to eat are often at highest risk for choking. This is because they are still learning the importance of chewing and how much food they can handle in their mouths.

Signs of choking

Coughing, shortness of breath, red face and going silent are common signs of chocking. If your child coughs and you can notice some air that still gets through, do not anything at the moment. If your child can clear it up on its own, you do not have to do any potentially dangerous interventions.

But, if its airway is completely blocked, stay calm and do anything that is in your power to save your child.

Steps to save your child from choking

Read the following steps carefully and you can even practice them on a doll. In this way you will be prepared to act appropriately when your child is choking.

1. Stay calm. Seeing your beloved child choking is a terrifying sight, but try to understand that it is already scared. If you remain calm, your child will not panic, too.
2. Take your child out of its seat.
3. Turn it, and make sure it faces the floor.
4. Place the child on your thigh, and allow its mouth to hang free over the edge of your knee.
5. Use the heel of your hand to deliver five back blows between its shoulder blades.
6. This step may be just enough to dislodge any food pieces. If that does not happen, turn the child around and perform a finger sweep along the opening to its throat in order to catch any offending chunk.
7. If the baby is still choking, lay it on the back, and use both your middle and pointing finger to perform five chest thrusts along its sternum.
8. Repeat the same procedure up to two more times.
9. If the baby is still choking continue after you have done three cycles of back blows and chest thrusts, make sure you call an emergency service, because you may not clear the blockage without any additional help.

Choking is something scary to see, especially when it is happening to your child, but it is something you can solve immediately. Children often gag on their food at certain point in their live – that is a part of their process on learning how to chew their food. Follow these handy steps and you will never experience a problem.

Source: healthyfoodhouse