{"id":8586,"date":"2018-01-13T14:13:14","date_gmt":"2018-01-13T14:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/st-peters.aberdeen.sch.uk\/?p=8586"},"modified":"2018-01-13T19:53:31","modified_gmt":"2018-01-13T19:53:31","slug":"health-information-grapes-and-cherry-tomatoes-can-choke-young-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/st-peters.aberdeen.sch.uk\/?p=8586","title":{"rendered":"Health information – grapes and cherry tomatoes can choke young children"},"content":{"rendered":"
New warning about choking risks for small children<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Parents and those who look after small children are being warned to be more aware of the potentially fatal risks small fruit like grapes and cherry tomatoes can pose.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Dr Jamie Cooper, an Emergency Department Consultant in Aberdeen, said there had been numerous incidents of children under 5 choking on these foods, both in Grampian and across the UK, sometimes with fatal consequences.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>NHS Grampian\u00a0Public Health\u00a0has now produced an awareness raising video aimed at highlighting the dangers and the simple steps that can be followed to dramatically reduce the risk of choking.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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https:\/\/youtu.be\/pEVlHq9gZf8\u200b<\/a><\/div>\n
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Dr Cooper said: \u201c<\/span>There is widespread awareness of the choking hazard of small toys, but it is less well known that food causes more than half of the fatal choking incidents in children under 5.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/span>Small, round food, like grapes and cherry tomatoes for example, have a smooth surface that can form a tight seal of the throat which is difficult to dislodge – even with proper first aid.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/span>Younger children have narrower throats and airways and their teeth aren\u2019t completely formed yet which means they have a reduced ability to chew properly.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Couple that with a tendency to be easily distracted while eating, and it can be a lethal combination.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/span>It\u2019s not just young children that need to be careful – older people, or those with impaired chewing, are also at risk.\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Dr Cooper said that grapes\u00a0are the third most common cause of food-related fatal choking episodes, after hotdogs and sweets.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/span>He continued: \u201cThe video is aimed at increasing awareness of the dangers of whole\u00a0grapes\u00a0and other similar small fruits as a choking hazard.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/i><\/span><\/span>The risks can be drastically cut by taking a few seconds to quarter them. That is something we really need parents or people who look after young children at any time to be aware of. It\u2019s a tiny change but one that really could save a child\u2019s life.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Dr Cooper urged parents to ensure young children are always supervised when eating.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cTragically there have been a number of incidents in the past where children have died as a result of choking on these types of foods so it is vital that young children aren\u2019t left unsupervised when eating,” he said. “If a child does begin to choke, every moment counts so act fast and dial 999 immediately. If the care giver is aware of first aid manoeuvres they also should be attempted urgently.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Christopher Littlejohn, Deputy Director of Public Health, said\u00a0<\/span>\u201cThe loss of a child is a tragedy beyond words and the hope must be that this video can help prevent this. The video describes cutting up small, round food such as grapes and cherry tomatoes, into quarters before serving to a child under five. This simple measure can help keep young children safe and well. I encourage everyone with young children to take the time to watch the video, and ask that they share this as widely as possible with others through their social networks.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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The specially produced video from NHS Grampian Public Health is available to view at:\u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/youtu.be\/pEVlHq9gZf8<\/span><\/a>\u200b<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New warning about choking risks for small children \u00a0 Parents and those who look after small children are being warned<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8587,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,41,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parent-council","category-school-lunches","category-school-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/st-peters.aberdeen.sch.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/st-peters.aberdeen.sch.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/st-peters.aberdeen.sch.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/st-peters.aberdeen.sch.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/st-peters.aberdeen.sch.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8586"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/st-peters.aberdeen.sch.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8598,"href":"https:\/\/st-peters.aberdeen.sch.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8586\/revisions\/8598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/st-peters.aberdeen.sch.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/st-peters.aberdeen.sch.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/st-peters.aberdeen.sch.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/st-peters.aberdeen.sch.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}