Am I the only one who is absolutely terrified of my baby choking?

[mom2happy]

I watch like a hawk and have a terrible fear of it.

She only has 6 teeth and doesn't chew anything. She just sucks on it like she is nursing on it.

She is 12 months and barely eats anyway, but I'm offering 3 times a day and she just plays around with the food mostly. When she does eat, I stay riveted to her while she is tasting her food.

I can never relax when she is eating. I know a child who choked and the father did the heimlick, but if he didnt notice she was choking because he happened to glance up, she would have been dead. This was a 5 yr old.

I just need to know I'm not alone with this obsession.

[ZakareyasMama]

DS isn't eating food yet, but I imagine I would be the same way. I check him constantly while he sleeps to make sure he's breathing. Have you taken an infant CPR class? It may make you feel more confident. (or it could freak you out more...) 

[KTProvi]

My little guy is also 12 mos and is not very interested in solids.  He gags and spits out pretty much anything except baby food.  I told my pediatrician I am very nervous abt choking, and he said that most chocking occurs bc parents are not paying attention.  He said sit with your baby while s/he eats, and there's no need to panic.

[1stTimeMama4-4-10]

My daughter has choked a few times - each time I grab her, put her semi horizontal on my legs and pound her back with quick sharp taps.  The scariest was last night because she was VERY upset about it (which she hasn't been in the past) and the food was not getting unlodged right away.  It took a few cycles of tapping her back and reaching into her mouth and eventually she coughed it up.  It was awful - but it was manageable thankfully. I know how to respond, so that makes me feel a lot safer. Every time she has choked, she was able to cough and indicate that there was a problem.  What scares me is what happens if she can't make a noise, because that's when it's the most dangerous.  We watch her carefully when she eats and I think that we will continue to do so for quite some time. 

[tjjazzy]

i'm terrified of it and i can't BELIEVE the number of ppl i see who don't cut up their children's grapes or hot dogs (or other such things.) i'm scared all the time. my youngest even coughs up apple skin now and then. he will immediately make himself gag and cough it up if he has something stuck or if he even thinks something is stuck. thank goodness!

[KempsMama]

Nope.  I'll be the first one to say it.  I'm not worried at all.  LO is 9 months, has two teeth, eats whatever we are eating.  He doesn't get grapes, but I don't cut up his hot dogs either.  I give him half a hot dog at a time, and he takes bites he can handle off of it, rather than me cutting them into what *I* think are bite size pieces and him shoving that into his mouth all at once. 

I do the dishes while he's eating...I fold laundry...I do anything but sit there and stare at him.  I think that would drive me batty if someone did that to me!

[stacie0501]

I have 5 children, 4 that are now teenagers and a 16 month old, none of them have ever chocked (thankfully)  but I have always been very watchful and fearful with all of them.  Babies tend to be lazy/forgetful chewers, meaning, they don't always chew something as well as they should and try to swallow it when it's still too large.   And when they are truly chocking, they cannot cough or make a sound, so if you are not watching, you may not know they are choking and they can lose consciousness VERY fast!  I saw a 2 year old almost choke to death on mozzarella cheese that was on a slice a pizza his parents were feeding him.  ( the melted cheese waded up in his throat) thankfully, another relative knew what to do! 

[clothmama]

I think it's totally normal. With my first daughter, I was always afraid of her choking and not being able to dislodge whatever was in her throat. I didn't give her finger foods until after a year because I was so nervous about it. I luckily never had to deal with her choking. Now I have baby #2 (also a year old) and I feel more confident about giving her solids/finger foods. I just keep the pieces small ( smaller than a pea) and that helps keep me from being too anxious. They say it's important to cut up hotdogs because they are the same size as a baby's windpipe and that's why they are such a choking hazard. Keeping the pieces much small than that should keep the risk of choking way down. If you are really nervous I would just educate myself about what to do (there are some helpful youtube videos out there about the baby heimlich) and maybe only give her finger foods when you aren't alone with her.

[nextcommercial]

Choking was not one of my fears.  I let her have pretty much anything she wanted.  She didn't get teeth til well over a year, so she gummed her food and did just fine.

I was however scared that she would fall from something.  A window, a balcony, anything really high up.  My only experience with falling was when I was 11 and saw a two year old fall from her second floor window.  She fell with the screen, and was actually unharmed.. so, I don't know where my fear came from.

[ElliesMomma]

forum crashing. caught my eye. 

you may (or may not) recall that George W. Bush choked on a pretzel *while he was president*. a secret service guy "saved him".

choking is a risk for anyone of any age -- but ya still gotta eat, you know. 

read "baby led weaning" and see how babies are naturally equipped to handle food in their mouths.

[MamaKickyPants]

There is a difference between gagging and choking. Babies gag all. the. time. They have a very strong gag reflex and it's totally normal, albeit scary from the parents perspective. True choking makes no noise as there is no air getting through. If your child coughs like something is stuck it is actually more dangerous to hit their back as it could lodge the obstruction further in the airway. There is nothing you should do if there is coughing or noise. If there's no noise, then abdominal thrusts (Heimlich) are the thing to do. If you are really worried, definitely take an infant First air/CPR course. Actually, all new parents should take one!

[Friday13th]

Choking is one of those things I'm really lax about. We do BLW and the first few weeks of my kids learning to eat makes other people REALLY nervous because there is a lot of loud, dramatic gagging. But I don't interfere with gagging and I don't let anyone else, if they're making noise they're handling it and I'm afraid I'd actually cause them to choke. They both have a really good sense of what they can handle and my 10 month old eats pretty much everything despite only having the tip of one tooth poking through.

[mom2happy]

Originally Posted by clothmama 

I think it's totally normal. With my first daughter, I was always afraid of her choking and not being able to dislodge whatever was in her throat. I didn't give her finger foods until after a year because I was so nervous about it. I luckily never had to deal with her choking. Now I have baby #2 (also a year old) and I feel more confident about giving her solids/finger foods. I just keep the pieces small ( smaller than a pea) and that helps keep me from being too anxious. They say it's important to cut up hotdogs because they are the same size as a baby's windpipe and that's why they are such a choking hazard. Keeping the pieces much small than that should keep the risk of choking way down. If you are really nervous I would just educate myself about what to do (there are some helpful youtube videos out there about the baby heimlich) and maybe only give her finger foods when you aren't alone with her.

The funny part is that this is my 3rd baby and I've been the same way about all of them.

I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who cuts the food up so small.

Good idea about youtube.

Thanks

[mom2happy]

Originally Posted by Friday13th 

Choking is one of those things I'm really lax about. We do BLW and the first few weeks of my kids learning to eat makes other people REALLY nervous because there is a lot of loud, dramatic gagging. But I don't interfere with gagging and I don't let anyone else, if they're making noise they're handling it and I'm afraid I'd actually cause them to choke. They both have a really good sense of what they can handle and my 10 month old eats pretty much everything despite only having the tip of one tooth poking through.

I kind of do blw with all of my babies. No purees and give real food (just tiny pieces of what ever we are eating on their tray).

I wish I could be so chill about the big chunks. It's just one of those things I can't get over.

[sere234]

Originally Posted by mom2happy 

I kind of do blw with all of my babies. No purees and give real food (just tiny pieces of what ever we are eating on their tray).

I wish I could be so chill about the big chunks. It's just one of those things I can't get over.

DH can't stand DS eating chunks and gagging so he is the nervous parent who carefully smashes things and I am the slacker who just makes them smaller pieces of what we are eating. :) LOL.

One person is always sitting with DS when he eats and we keep an eye on him. 
 

[zenmumajen]

I can totally relate and because of it we did purees and part time BLW. I didn't want to do mashes/purees but I figured if I was super panicky evertime he ate- he would associate eating with nervousness. We do BLW part time though and he is starting to really enjoy feeding himself and since my partner and I took an infant CPR class I feel SOO much more confident. My fear is starting to go away...also my fiance is very calm about him eating and I know he can keep his cool if he ever did choke...so I tend to give him more finger foods around him. Like all other posters said...I would just keep a close eye in case you don't hear a sound.