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Choking Concerns for Small Children
3 Steps Parents Can Take to Avoid Disaster
By Jennifer Lacey
The AAP advises parents and caregivers everywhere that the following food items can be potential choking hazards to children under the age of 5:
- Hot dogs
- Nuts and seeds
- Chunks of meat or cheese
- Whole grapes
- Hard, gooey or sticky candy
- Popcorn
- Chunks of peanut butter
- Raw vegetables
- Raisins
- Chewing gum
Young children are at high risk for choking on any of the above items due to the fact that they are lacking the proper teeth to chew these adult foods. This absence of proper teeth can interfere with chewing and may lead children to swallow foods that have not been completed chewed.
Dr. Kelley says when it comes to hard food items such as raw carrots, apple slices and nuts, the ability to grind up these items doesn't develop until a child is 4 to 5 years of age and is "secondary to both the development of the jaw joint and the neural pathways that allow the coordination of grinding to be learned."
Dr. James S. Reilly, chairman of the department of surgery at the Nemours-duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del., agrees that these various transitional foods should "have texture for control with the tongue, easy dissolvability and the ability to break when chewed into small pieces that are easily swallowed."
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