Hot dogs pose high choking risk
What is new?
The American Academy of Pediatrics or AAP on Feb 22 issued a policy report "Prevention of Choking Among Children" saying lawmakers, regulators, parents, care providers, and food processors need to take measures to prevent choking on food.
The risk of food related choking
Choking is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children particularly those aged 3 years or younger. The report cites the risk of choking on toys has been well addressed, but there is not much attention paid to the risk of choking on food. Choking on food can be as lethal as toys.
Choking on food causes about 60 to 80 children each year in the United States and more than 10,000 emergency room visits annually. And hot dogs are responsible for 17 percent of food related asphyxiations among children aged 10 and younger, according to the report.
Foods that pose high risk of choking
Hot dogs are the food most commonly resulting in fatal choking among children because they are cylindrical, air-way sized and compressible. Other risky foods include hard candy, peanuts/nuts, seeds, whole grapes, raw carrots, apples, popcorn, chunks of peanut butter, marshmallows, chewing gum and sausages.
Who are at risk?
Children younger than four years and those with chewing and swallowing disorders are at highest risk of food related choking.
Children with health conditions including neuromuscular disorders, developmental delay,traumatic brain injury, and others are at higher risk of swallowing disorders which predispose them to choking risk.
children's behaviours also affect their risk of choking on food. High risk behaviours include eating while walking, running, talking, laughing and eating quickly. Playing while eating also puts a child at high risk.
How to prevent choking on food
The report says regulatory actions that are needed to prevent choking on food include surveillance, cautionary food labeling, recalls when necessary, and public education.
The policy report scheduled to appear in the March issue of the journal Pediatrics offers a number of recommendations on choking prevention including using warning labels on food that poses a high choking risk, recalling food products that pose a significant choking hazard, establishing a Nationwide food related choking incident surveillance and reporting system, designing or redesigning foods to reduce the choking risk and teaching teachers, parents, and child care providers CPR and choking first aid.
By Jimmy Downs
Source:http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/peds.2009-2862v1
Photo courtesy of wikipedia
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How did I not hear about this in 8th grade biology?
Oh, my bad. Probably just a typo.
These people wasted their time and money. The only statment that needed to be made was "parents take caution to what your children eat so that they don't choke on any of it." Nuff said, let the stupidity end
Here is the common sense approach, parents spending the time and making the effort to make sure their children receive and follow instruction on how to properly consume and chew food.
Why is it that government always looks to business as the culprit in these cases and does not put the blame where it belongs...squarely on the shoulders of parents who are too busy and self absorbed to take the time to properly raise their kids.
Blame the parents....not the hot dogs.
Yes the old lady was dumb to spill coffee on herself; however, the real reason she got so much money was because McD's kept their coffee too hot. Essentially, they use to super-heat large vats of coffee and keep them at illegally high temperatures. They had previously been warned about the temp of their stored coffee. While it was clearly the ladies fault, the burns were significantly more severe because of the illegal temperature of the coffee. Therefore she was awarded the money (or a portion of it) they penalized McD's.
It's the same logic.
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