What To Do When A Child Chokes

Since my daughter choked on a small piece of sausage when she was 13 months old, I live in fear of one of my kids choking again. At the time without thinking I slapped her hard on her back between her shoulder blades and thankfully the sausage flew out. However, it was possibly one of the scariest moments of my life, partly because I would not have known what to do if that technique hadn’t worked. When retelling the story I am amazed at how many other parents have a similar story and not just with toddlers. Just last week I my best friend told me how her 10 year old choked on a dried apricot and turned blue. Luckily my friend had done a first aid course at work and knew how to respond, otherwise we dread to think what would have happened. So I’m not surprised to hear 15,000 under-five’s and 10,000 children between 5 and 13 years were admitted to A&E last year due to choking. Now to help parents know what to do, Tesco’s Baby & Toddler Club’s BabySafe campaign have released a brilliant first aid  video with the help of the Red Cross offering advice to parents on choking. The video not only points out the clear  warning signs that your child is choking such as not being able to breathe, speak, cough, or cry but also shows you what to do should this ever happen. If you’ve ever wondered how to treat a choking baby, how to give back blows and abdominal thrusts to a choking child over this age, the frequency you need to do this, when you need to call 999, this is the video to watch. If, you live in fear of a choking incident please take 3 minutes to watch the video (and send it to friends too) so you feel prepared should the worst ever happen. For more information on First Aid training go to British Red Cross.