Most Common Choking Hazards for Infants and How to Avoid Them

When you have a baby, one of your biggest scares has got to be choking. This is because not many people know how to deal with an infant while they choke on anything. The one aspect of choking for infants is that you can easily avoid it if you are careful enough. When you look at choking hazards, even the things that may surprise you can be hazardous for infants. So, what are some of the common choking hazards for infants? And crucially, how can you avoid these choking hazards when you have infants in the house?

Choking Hazards

You know some of the choking hazards already, and you need to keep them away from where kids can reach them. We aren’t talking about baby teethers, we are talking about coins, pen caps, and some of the random household items that could be a choking hazard to your children. 

Some of the dangers that you need to keep off where the infants can reach are:

• Bottle tops
• Keys
• Small key-holders
• Pen caps
• Building blocks
• Buttons
• Coins

These are just a few that you need to look at carefully, but any tiny thing is a hazard, and you need to keep it out of the infant’s reach. The other danger that most people don’t know about is food. When the infant is eating, a grown-up should supervise the meal for the kid. 

Avoid Choking While Eating

Since food is one of the hazards that your infant can choke on, you need to be careful about how they eat. Here are some tips that can help to prevent choking for your minor when they are eating. 

• Sit while eating – most children choke when they eat while lying down. You need to ensure that kids eat while they are sited. 
• Keep food pieces small – since the kid is still small, you need to keep the pieces small.  
• Cook, grate, and marsh – you need to cook well, gate, and then smash for the problematic foods. This is particularly the case when you are cooking potatoes. 
• Encourage chewing
• Avoid nuts and such hard foods – this should be discouraged until the child is almost four years old. 
• Don’t give the baby bottle while in bed – the first step was to encourage the kid to eat while they sit. Don’t change that just because it’s bottle time. When your baby falls asleep with the bottle, they can draw liquid to the lungs and choke on it. 

Prevent Choking Around the Home

It isn’t just food that can choke your infant; other objects can cause choking. Some of them are

• Avoid buying toys with buttons or batteries – if there are loose batteries on the toys, it can be a danger to the infants. 
• Keep small objects out of reach for the curious kids, and they tend to touch everything. It would be best if you kept things that can fit in the mouth out of their reach. 
• Only take age-recommended toys.
• Keep toys for the older siblings separate – the older kids may have toys that can be choking hazards for the much younger infants.

How To Avoid Choking Hazards For Infants

Several choking hazards can be around your house. Once you have identified them, you can easily keep them off the kid’s reach. It would help if you were supervised when your infant is eating and use the above tips to ensure they are safe.