H is the SAME way. He never cuts David's food small enough. I think he thinks I hover too much but JFC, the kid does not chew!
YES! Omg what is it with that?? H is like "He's fine, he's a big kid. He can handle food! Relax!"
He's 2.5- not a big kid. If he were a "big kid" he would know not to shove 3 handfuls of broccoli in his mouth and then try to jog laps around the house while chewing. Sorry I don't want him to choke.
David will not eat grapes but hell yes I would. My kid chokes a lot, too. I'm teaching him to chew, lol. He shoves a lot of food in his mouth at once, we are working on it. I still cut his chicken tenders up for him. IDK if it's a sensory thing or what but it's still a little bit of an issue for us (almost all of his sensory issues are oral).
I cut grapes into quarters. The grapes at my grocery store are huge and I have a food shoveler. I have to spread food around on his tray to slow him down.
We don't but so far we have not had issues with choking. Some children scarf down their food or have issues swallowing. From what I recall, Will has/had some sensory issues right? If this happened in the past, I would definitely chop the food into tiy bits. When my kids were toddlers, I cut everything up.
Hmm. Ds has never choked on a grape, but has also choked on bacon.
We need to do a bacon choking hazard awareness campaign.
Weird. I give David bacon whole. Never been an issue.
I agree with Speckled that it's kid-specific. Obviously you know your kid. David's always been a choker. I've never had to heimlich him, thank god, but we've had enough scary incidents that make me wayyyy over cautious about his food.
Not anymore for L, but until she was about three I always cut them in half. It's a ye olde thing since my mom does it automatically too. Something about the skin being tough to pierce and the size of a kid's windpipe?
How scary! DS has choked on a hot dog twice, both times needing the heimlich. The first time, I jumped into action and it didn't hit me until afterwards the seriousness of the situation. It was pure adrenaline. The second time, DH was the one that did it while I stood there frozen, not able to move.
David will not eat grapes but hell yes I would. My kid chokes a lot, too. I'm teaching him to chew, lol. He shoves a lot of food in his mouth at once, we are working on it. I still cut his chicken tenders up for him. IDK if it's a sensory thing or what but it's still a little bit of an issue for us (almost all of his sensory issues are oral).
The over stuffing is a sensory issue. The way my son's therapists described it is that when we put a piece of food in our mouths we can feel it and know that it is there. A sensory kid will put a piece in there and not get the stimulation needed to trigger the chewing. This leads to the child putting more and more food in until they notice the sensation of it. My son was notorious for putting so much in that he couldn't chew and we would have to dig it all out:(
How scary! I don't think I would have reacted as quickly as you, which freaks me out now that I think about it. My kid isn't a choker though. I don't cut up his grapes but he always eats them under supervision.
Yes, Will has sensory issues and this is part of it. However, he puts the whole grape at his lips and sucks it into his mouth. Cutting them up helps him prevent inhaling them like that.
Yes, Will has sensory issues and this is part of it. However, he puts the whole grape at his lips and sucks it into his mouth. Cutting them up helps him prevent inhaling them like that.
Ds tries that on occasion and I flip out at him. I agree that's super dangerous!
I vividly remember doing the heimlich on DD1 and that was more than 3 years ago! I did good at acting immediately, the only part I failed at was that I kept on whacking her until my MIL said "um, she's crying, I think she can breathe now" (because OF COURSE it happened in front of my MIL).
FWIW, daycare requires that grapes and hot dogs be cut up through pre-k. I believe it's actually in my state's daycare regs. I do cut DS's grapes in half for daycare, but I don't do it at home.
David will not eat grapes but hell yes I would. My kid chokes a lot, too. I'm teaching him to chew, lol. He shoves a lot of food in his mouth at once, we are working on it. I still cut his chicken tenders up for him. IDK if it's a sensory thing or what but it's still a little bit of an issue for us (almost all of his sensory issues are oral).
The over stuffing is a sensory issue. The way my son's therapists described it is that when we put a piece of food in our mouths we can feel it and know that it is there. A sensory kid will put a piece in there and not get the stimulation needed to trigger the chewing. This leads to the child putting more and more food in until they notice the sensation of it.
This is good to know, thanks for sharing! I've definitely noticed David doing this since he's been on solids and it's gotten sooo much better over the years but I'm still in paranoid mode. He responds well with reminders but he needs A LOT of reminder sometimes :-) .