One of the most common situations where these foods are introduced without parents realizing the risk is baby led weaning, though it can happen regardless of the method used to introduce solids.
7 Dangerous Foods To NEVER Give Your Child
Why Children Under 4 Are at Higher Risk of Choking
Food is the most common cause of choking in babies and children under the age of four and that's because babies and toddlers have narrow airways.
In fact, the size of a young child's trachea or their windpipe is approximately the size of a drinking straw in diameter.
And unfortunately, as soon as their incisor teeth erupt, which can occur as early as six months of age, they're able to bite and break off large chunks of food.
And to effectively chew and grind these large chunks of food into safe, manageable pieces, a child needs to have molars and unfortunately, molars don't typically erupt until the child is approximately one and a half years of age.
They also need to be using a mature chewing pattern.
However, it takes years for toddlers to develop this skill, which allows them to grind large chunks of food into smaller pieces of food.
Therefore, during this phase of waiting for the teeth to erupt and the time taken to actually develop a mature chewing pattern, children under the age of four years are at higher risk of accidentally inhaling these large chunks of food and blocking their extremely narrow airways.
To minimize the risk of choking, there are two important things to understand, which foods actually present the biggest choking hazard for children under four and how to minimize the choking risk if and when you do give your child these foods.
We'll start with the most dangerous of them all, hot dogs.
It may be surprising, but hot dogs cause more choking deaths than any other food and this is because the cylindrical shape of a hot dog and the small diameter fit perfectly into the narrow airways of a child.
And on top of that, they have a smooth skin on the outside, which allows it to slide really easily into the child's airway and block it.
Because of this, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend we avoid giving hot dogs to children under four all together.
Or if you must give them the hot dog, they should be cut up in into small pieces and the skin should be removed.
The next food, which is a choking hazard for a child under four will definitely surprise you, but before I cover what it is, if you haven't already, make sure you click on the link in the description box below to get the free mealtime essentials list where I list all my favorite cutlery, cups, plates, and other products for babies and toddlers to make meal times a whole lot easier for you and hopefully, a little bit less messy.
Raw apples are another top choking hazard for children under four.
This is because raw apples are challenging to chew and are really slippery, and this means that the large unchewed chunks can easily slide down the back of the throat and into the airway.
Therefore, to minimize the risk of choking on an apple, it's recommended you initially give babies cooked apple, which is either been mashed up or cut into halves.
By softening the apple, you're actually making it easier for your little one to chew and then mash up the apple in their mouth before swallowing it.
And if you still do want to give them raw apple, you should always make sure it's been grated.
Raw carrot sticks and baby carrots are another known choking hazard for babies and toddlers.
And really, this shouldn't be surprising as the hard nature of carrots means it's really easy for the child to actually bite it off large chunks, but then find it difficult or near impossible to grind those carrot chunks down if they don't have their molars and they're not using a mature chewing pattern.
And when you think about baby carrots, they have a cylindrical shape, which is a bit similar to a hot dog.
And this means that if the child were to accidentally bite off a large chunk and inhale it, it's the perfect shape to actually block their airways.
So to minimize the risk of a child accidentally choking on a carrot, it's important to cook the carrot until it's soft and then cut it into age-appropriate sizes.
So initially, that may mean, you give your six-month-old mashed carrot or cooked carrot sticks.
Whole grapes, blueberries, and cherry tomatoes are also incredibly dangerous and pose a huge choking risk for children under the age of four.
When presented whole, these fruits are small in nature, they're round, and they have a firm but smooth surface, which make them extremely slippery and the perfect shape to accidentally block a child's airway.
Therefore, to minimize the risk of accidentally choking on grapes, blueberries, and cherry tomatoes, it's always recommended that you cut these fruits into quarters to make them safer for your child to eat.
Whole nuts and seeds are also another potential choking hazard for children under the age of four and this is because they're generally round or cylindrical in nature and hard.
Therefore, to safely chew whole nuts and seeds, the child needs to have that mature chewing pattern and their molars.
As it can take years for children's molars to erupt and for them to develop a mature eating pattern, they are at higher risk of accidentally swallowing the nuts or seeds whole and blocking their airways.
Given that it is recommended babies are introduced nuts, particularly peanuts and other tree nuts in their first year of life in the hopes that it will actually reduce the likelihood of that child developing a food allergy, it's really important to give your baby nuts and seeds, but ensure that they've been crushed, grounded, or made into a paste or butter.
Also, it's important to note that babies and toddlers can actually find it difficult to swallow and may choke on a spoonful or dollop of peanut butter.
Therefore, make sure you always spread that butter or paste onto another piece of food like a stick of toast.
Popcorn is another potential choking hazard for children.
Although delicious, the lightweight nature of popcorn means that it can be easily inhaled without chewing and then get stuck in a child's airway.
Also, the unpopped corn kernels, which are incredibly hard, can easily become lodged in a child's airway.
As popcorn is a high choking risk, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend children are actually not given popcorn until they're at least four years of age.
Another food which toddlers and children love is hard candy, but hard candy is actually a potential choking hazard for children.
And this is because hard candy is often small, round, and extremely slippery once it's actually been placed in the mouth.
And these features, along with the added difficulty of children under the age of four chewing and then grinding that into smaller pieces of food, which is safe to swallow means that that child may accidentally swallow or inhale that candy before they've actually managed to chew it and it can become lodged in their airways.
It is due to these reasons that hard candies are generally off limits for children under the age of four.
In addition to these foods, which are choking hazards, there are also eight other foods, which are off limits for babies and this is because they can make babies sick or cause other health problems.
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