His name is Angela Henderson and a few days ago he shared X-ray of your 5-year-old son after choking on a grape that could have ended his life of completely plugging the entrance of the larynx.
He did it to make mothers and fathers aware of how dangerous they can be because they are small, with relatively hard and slippery skin in their mouths. Dangerous even for a 5 year old boy, which assumes a remarkable chewing ability.
One of the most dangerous foods
According to a recent study, grapes they are the third cause of suffocation in young children, behind the sausages and candies. This is not really the third most dangerous food, because cases of suffocation are related to the times children are given a certain food. That is, if 10 children eat nuts and 5 children suffer from suffocation, they will be much more dangerous than if 1000 children eat grapes and suffer 50. Although there are more cases of suffocation by grape, we must say that nuts are more dangerous.
But it is not the only study, because in 2016, doctors from the emergency service of Aberdeen, United Kingdom, published an article alerting the grapes, after having seen three cases of suffocation by this food. A year earlier, from the Department of Intensive Care of Pediatrics of Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, they warned of three other recent cases of aspiration of grapes by young children.
They had to intervene under general anesthesia
As we read in DailyMail, the 5-year-old had to be treated with general anesthesia to be able to work on its interior safely and without added risks. If the grape had moved towards the trachea, it would not have been able to breathe, and the risk of death would have been evident.
How then to give them the grapes?
As we explained a few months ago when New Year's Eve bells approached, the important thing is modify the shape of the grape: If the child is small (say under 3 years old), it is best to remove the skin so that it loses that ability to slip and more easily disintegrates in the mouth. In addition, it must be cut into two or three pieces so that the danger is less.
If instead we talk about older children, although we can leave the skin, we must cut them equally in two or three pieces (they can still be dangerous in the width). Of course they can chok on them equally, but once we have made them of a smaller size, the probability of clogging the airways decreases greatly.
Beware of everything small and hard or gummy
It is always recommended, in children, avoid small and hard foods. Well, in reality you have to avoid small foods that are hard, but also those that have a rubbery consistency (they are soft, but they do not fall apart and return easily to their original form): jelly beans, grapes and sausages are foods that being soft gives a false sense of security. But precisely because they are soft and hard to alter until the tooth is not well inserted, they can remain without problem in a child's larynx and put his life at risk.
That is why you have to be very careful with it, altering the form or avoiding them in children under 5-6 years. Remember that this child is 5 years old and you could say that he has saved himself from a miracle.
