What to do if a child chokes on a small detail during a game, crumbs during lunch, milk when feeding or water when bathing ? Many mothers shake the baby helplessly in all directions, fall into a hysterical panic or call the ambulance faster, leaving the victim unattended. Situations are different, but you always need to be calm and clearly know the rules of first aid.
Why does the baby choke while feeding?
Each mother’s baby can be swallowed by milk while feeding. The reasons for this may be severe hunger, excessive milk production, and the baby’s inappropriate position when feeding.
During severe hunger, the baby begins to quickly suckle, not having time to swallow milk, as a result of which the baby chokes during feeding. In this case, you need to often attach the baby to the chest, so that he ate a little and learned to eat slowly.
A woman may have a lot of milk, which, when the baby is touched, begins to pour “a fountain”, as a result of which it chokes. In this case, you need to either express before feeding so that the milk flows evenly, or periodically pull out the chest.
Also, the baby chokes on the fact that the liquid enters the mouth and nose, due to improper position during feeding. His mouth should be higher than his mother’s chest. Each mother should choose a position independently: one is convenient to feed in a position with a straight back, the second - lying down, and the third - in an inclined position on a chair.
What to do if the baby is choking while feeding?
If the baby choked with milk, he begins to cough and give his mother signals for help (crying, coughing, noisy breathing, turns away from the chest). Rarely, there are times when each feeding is accompanied by a choking of a child in whom fluid pours from the nose and mouth. In this case, you need to consult a pediatrician.
If the baby cannot cough out excess milk, saliva and begins to choke on its own, then the following should be done.
- Put the baby on your hand, pressing it on the stomach and holding the chin of the baby, that is, with your hand you need to grasp the baby completely. Next, tilt the baby a little forward and pat on the back. From simultaneous pressing on the stomach and patting, the cough intensifies, which helps to restore breathing. If it’s hard to hold on your hand, put the baby on your outstretched leg face down and do the same.
- Another way to provide first aid is to put the child on his back with his head down and do an indirect heart massage with two fingers (index and middle fingers on the sternum of the baby). They pressed and allowed to straighten the chest. In severe cases, these two methods alternate.
What to do if a child is choked up to three years?
Kids of this age love to taste all objects for taste and strength. They can swallow small parts during the game, find screws and bolts on the floor, choke on bread, meat, fish bone, candy, stewed fruit and even their own saliva.
In this case, you need to remember one thing - if the child begins to cry loudly, cough loudly, then it is necessary not to interfere and monitor the exit of the foreign body. Coughing and vomiting are protective mechanisms of the body when foreign objects get in. And illiterate intervention can lead to the fact that the foreign body will fail further.
If the preschooler does not cope (the signs of suffocation testify to this: noisy breathless breath, quiet weak cough, blue skin, grasping the affected neck area, salivation and open mouth), then vomiting is necessary. To do this, click on the root of the tongue, while the face of the child is turned down to the floor.
If this does not help, then with the edge of the palm between the shoulder blades you need to do a few pats. Please note that the child in this position should lie with his stomach on his other hand or outstretched leg.
Help for older children
Children who cannot be held by weight on one arm are given first aid in a different way:
- place the child with his back to himself and grab the area of the abdomen with his hands;
- the palm should be between the ribs and the navel;
- squeeze this hand into a fist, which grasp with another brush;
- spread your elbows to the sides and press the stomach several times from the bottom up.
These actions must be repeated until a foreign body flies out. This method can be used if the child choked on candy, a large piece of food, fruit. If a schoolchild chokes on a fish bone, then you can not make sudden movements, as well as drink water and jam a crust of bread, trying to push it through.
Look in the throat of a child, if you see a bone, then remove it with tweezers. If there are no tools, run to the nearest hospital to the surgeon who will remove the bone in a matter of minutes. In case of deep penetration, surgical intervention with a bronchoscope is required.
If the child choked, but said nothing to parents ?!
Even teenagers can swallow small objects (coins, badges, screws, beads, chewing gum) while playing, experimenting, tricks, while hastily swallowing food, or accidentally with a sharp sigh. After swallowing an item, children often hide this fact, fearing the negative from their parents, without experiencing discomfort at the beginning.
But swallowed items can go in two ways. In the first case, they enter the intestines and exit naturally. In the second case, the foreign body may become stuck in the esophagus, which causes increased salivation. In this case, the child may experience anxiety and pain in the chest or abdomen.
In severe cases, the student may suffocate, turn blue, or lose consciousness. If the child choked, first aid is expressed in the call of specialists. Even in cases of panic and confusion, put the phone on the speakerphone and follow the instructions of a specialist.
If the child is unconscious
If you find a pale baby unconscious, then the first thing you need to restore his breathing. Turn the victim on his side, slightly bend his head back, lifting his chin. In this case, one cannot do without medical assistance, but it is also impossible to leave a child unattended. If there is breathing, then call a doctor and check the victim’s breathing after a few seconds.
What to do if the child choked and does not breathe? Help is expressed in artificial respiration and indirect heart massage. To do this, keep the victim in the same position, gain air and smoothly exhale it into the child’s mouth and nose. Please note that the smaller the age of children, the smaller their lung capacity. There are about five such exhalations.
Next, combine two artificial exhalations with indirect heart massage (press the chest cage about 15 times) with periodic listening to breathing. The palms (one on top of the other) should be two centimeters below the mentally drawn line between the nipples. When pressed, the chest should bend by one third, the movements should be strong and sharp. Remember, with indirect heart massage, the victim should lie on a hard surface on his back.
Help at the water park and pool
What to do if a child is choked with water in a water park, pool or bath? Moreover, such tragic situations can even be with caring parents who turned away literally for one minute. Some mothers do not even realize that their obedient child can slip in the bathroom in a second and go under water.
Help is provided by any of the above methods. Turn the small child down, putting it on your outstretched leg or palm, and by patting-pressing between the shoulder blades, you will allow fluid to leak.
Unconscious baby is given artificial respiration with indirect heart massage. Up to a year of pressing the chest, do two fingers, and older children palm. Language should not block the sky.
But in order to prevent tragedies, you need to remember that even older children can choke in the bathroom (relax and fall asleep), so periodically ask them about their health or ask them to sing songs while bathing. In bodies of water and in public places, keep your eyes on the child. Even a slight fright can lead to panic and tragedy.
Basic rules if a child suffocates:
- if the baby choked and begins to cough, then the parent should calmly encourage a foreign body to cough up;
- if the child choked with fish bone , first aid is expressed in calling specialists, going to the surgeon or independently pulling out a foreign body with tweezers;
- if signs of suffocation appear, then apply the above actions and call specialists without leaving the victim unattended;
- if you don’t know or forgot how to provide first aid in the form of pats on the back and indirect heart massage, dial the ambulance number, put on the speakerphone and follow the instructions of the specialist;
- if the child is unconscious, but breathing is audible, turn on its side and call specialists, opening the doors wide open;
- if the victim does not breathe, do artificial respiration, within one minute call an ambulance, open the door, repeat exhalations with indirect heart massage for half an hour.
Situations are different, and not everyone knows what to do if a child chokes at home or on the street, and sometimes life depends on a few minutes! In order to provide medical care competently, it is better to take courses with doctors and in case of tragedy, do artificial respiration and indirect heart massage correctly.