What action to take if a child is choking

How can we stop children from choking? What advice should we follow and what should we do if this happens?

Learn the appropriate maneuvers to save the life of a child if they are choking. Help us to spread the word about the campaign so that as many people as possible know what to do using the hashtag: #SOSRespira.

Obstruction of the airway by a foreign body or through choking occurs when a piece of food or an object gets accidentally trapped in the airways, preventing the passage of air into the lungs and causing asphyxsia. Most blocakges are minor, but others can induce cardiorespiratory arrest >through lack of oxygen.

To be able to avoid this, it is essential to put a series of preventative measures in place:

• Keep marbles, beads, drawing pins, latex balloons, coins and other small toys and objects out of the reach of children, especially those under three years old. As a general rule, anything that can pass through the hole in the middle of a toilet roll should be avoided.
• Prevent children from walking, running or playing with either food or toys in their mouths.
• Supervise young childrens’ meal times and avoid giving under-fours food that may get stuck in their throats such as sausages, nuts, chunks of meat or cheese, grapes, hard or sticky candy and popcorn.
• Prevent older siblings from giving small children food or dangerous toys.