Our First Aid Hero

Over the weekend I witnessed something that was horrifying and shook me to my very core, I’m writing this post to raise awareness and to make parents and all those who are surrounded by children more aware with what they give into their hands.

Both my children are obsessed with bread sticks, crackers and any form of dried biscuit. Have I ever second thought giving it to them? No. is the simple answer. At the moment my little monsters are going through a “I’m not going to eat a thing” stage and dried bread sticks are the only thing they seem to put past their mouths.

Whilst chilling with her daddy on the sofa Alizé was munching on this very thing, she does love to shovel things in far too quickly and often doesn’t allow herself to finish whats in her mouth. Within a split second every parents nightmare was occurring in front of our very eyes…she was choking. Not just a normal cough, a full on uncontrollable chock that rapidly became worse in a matter of seconds. As I ran into the room to see what was happening, frightened by the noise I could hear, my husband (Our hero) had her at the correct angle trying to get that dried bread stick out of her throat. My daughters face was turning blue, she was struggling to breath and at that very precise moment all I could do was scream and pray that her dad was going to get it out…and thankfully he did.

Truthfully, I am still to this moment in shock and felt that I had to immediately share this with you all so no one goes through what we just did. We spend every living moment mollycoddling our children and protecting them from all the evil that the world brings. Food however, is our responsibility and it is up to us as their parents to ensure that what goes into their mouths is good for them and safe. Often if you come from a culture like I do where we all grew up on things that every midwife nowadays would fret over, then it’s easy to follow what your grandmother did than the NHS guidelines. Too often do people utter the words “well you had it and you grew up fine!” We may have been fine but perhaps we were extremely lucky to never be that child that chocked on something that shouldn’t have been given to them in the first place. There is a reason why companies have released these books, why they can’t drum into parents heads enough how to cut specific fruits and why St Johns Ambulance released the jelly baby chokeables advert…because it happens, quickly and if you don’t know what you’re doing then the outcome can be more horrifying.

Throughout the coming week without a shadow of doubt I will be booking on to the * St Johns Ambulance first aid course *, if it wasn’t for my hubby who knew what he was doing and kept calm throughout the whole thing I don’t know what could have happened. All I know now is that bread sticks and all forms of crackers, carrots, popcorn and any other thing that children can choke on will not be going anywhere near my children’s mouths. I know it seems extreme and it can happen with any form of food, but I will not be giving them things knowing that it’s not suitable for their age.

We have all been guilty of scrolling past warning signs on social media that give us 3 ways to cut a grape for example, or perhaps haven’t really taken on board adverts that are designed to help us in these circumstances. Simply because we never want to believe it will happen to our own. Please, never ignore anything that will save somebodies life and for the love of god never give your child something that they can’t digest properly. So many companies have designed foods for our children that are safe to eat so lets just stick with that for now, there is plenty of time for them to eat adult food right?

Sev x

 

 

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