How to Save a Choking Baby in 3 Minutes

It’s every parent’s worst fear: your baby appears to be choking, and you don’t know what to do to help. Try as you might to put small objects up on the highest shelves and keep coins in your wallet and nuts and seeds locked away securely, babies can sometimes manage to get a hold of things they shouldn’t—and inevitably, they put these things in their mouths.

Sometimes, this can lead to choking. So, what can you do when your best efforts to avoid this situation are for naught and your infant is choking?

Learn the simple steps to save a choking baby so that you can be ready in case this emergency situation should happen while you are present. Here are written instructions followed with two videos on how to to save a choking baby.

Infant First Aid – How to Save a Choking Baby

Step 1: Evaluate the situation

• If the baby is making strange noises (wheezing, gagging, or choking/coughing sounds) while opening his mouth, his breathing may be partially impeded by a foreign object.
• If the baby is silent with mouth open and turning red, blue or purple, his breathing may be completely obstructed by a foreign object. In either event, the child needs immediate help in order to begin breathing again.

Please note that if the baby is crying loudly or is coughing hard, he may be able to dislodge the object on his own by using the coughing reflex. However, if the cough is very weak or not present and the baby appears to be choking, rescue attempts should be made.

Step 2: Attempt to clear the object from the airway

Blows to the back

1. While sitting, place your non-dominant forearm palm-up along the top of your thigh.
2. Lay the baby face-down along your forearm, so his belly is along your arm, and support his jaw with your hand. Note: the baby’s head should be lower than the rest of the body while doing this.
3. Using your dominant hand, strike the baby firmly between the shoulder blades up to five times.

Abdominal thrusts

If the strikes to the back do not help to remove the foreign object from the baby’s airway, turn him over and begin abdominal thrusts.

To do this, lay the baby on your lap and support his head with your non-dominant hand.

1. Continue to keep the head lower than the rest of the body.
2. Using your dominant hand, place two fingers in the center of the baby’s chest, just below the level of the nipples.
3. Press down one-third to one-half the depth of the chest (or one and a half inches) and repeat this thrust five times.
4. Repeat this cycle of five strikes to the back followed by five abdominal thrusts until the foreign object has cleared the airway.

Step 3: If dislodging attempts fail, initiate CPR

If the object does not dislodge after repeated back blows and abdominal thrusts, and the baby becomes unconscious in spite of these efforts, call the emergency number right away and initiate infant CPR, outlined below, until help arrives.

How to Perform CPR on an Infant Child

Step 1: Perform a further evaluation of the baby

• Check the baby for any injuries or bleeding.
• If the child is bleeding, CPR must not be performed until the flow of blood has been stanched by applying pressure.
• Check for consciousness by tapping on the baby’s foot.
• Check the mouth and throat for a visible foreign object. If you see one, attempt to clear it by using a finger.
• If the baby is unresponsive, initiate CPR until help arrives.

Begin by placing the baby on a flat and firm surface.

Step 2: Open the air passage

1. To open the air passage, tilt the infant’s head back slightly with one hand while lifting his chin just a bit with the other hand.
2. Take just a few seconds (no more than ten) to check for signs of breathing.
3. Listen at the baby’s mouth for breathing sounds and watch the chest for signs of rising and falling.

If the baby isn’t breathing, move on to the third step.

Step 3: Perform mouth-to-mouth

1. Covering the baby’s nose and mouth with your mouth, breathe gently into the baby’s lungs. You should see his chest rise and fall with your breaths.
2. If the chest does not rise in response to your breath, try tilting the head slightly to the side and attempting the mouth-to-mouth again.
3. Repeat these breaths twice. If the breaths have no effect on the infant’s consciousness, initiate chest compressions.

Step 4: Perform chest compressions

• To perform chest compressions, place two fingers in the center of the infant’s chest as outlined above for the performance of abdominal thrusts.
• Compress the chest one-third to one-half the depth of the chest 30 times, keeping at a rate of about 100 compressions per minute.
• Each cycle of mouth-to-mouth breaths and chest compressions should take no more than 30 seconds.

Step 5: Continue to cycle through mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions

Continue to perform cycles of mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions until help arrives.

Even if the baby regains consciousness and is able to dislodge the foreign object following CPR, he will still need to be evaluated by a medical professional to ensure that the object is entirely clear of the airway and that no internal injuries have occurred as a result of his ordeal.

 

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How to manage foreign bodies in our ear/ nose/ throat

Foreign body is an object or piece of extraneous matter that has entered the body by accident or design. It is common to see certain items getting stuck in the ear, nose or throat especially, in young children. While most of the time they do not raise an alarm, however, sometimes they can lead to severe consequences like rupture of the eardrum or even choking.

 Children , as they explore the environment around them, they tend to put items such as peas, beans, marbles, beads, cotton, paper, etc, in their mouth, nose or ears. A similar trend can be seen in adults with mental disorders.

Trauma/ fall/accident can force foreign bodies like rock, pebbles into the ear, nose or throat.

Adults while riding a bike or sleeping on the ground (campsites) can have insects: flies, ants, roaches fly into the nose or ear.

Choking occurs when foreign bodies block the airway, common reasons are: not chewing the food properly, diseases like Parkinsonism, drinking alcohol or certain drugs that slowdowns the process of swallowing.

Foreign bodies in the ear Symptoms: Pain in the ear, discharge or bleeding from the ear, feeling of fullness or pressure in the ear and dizziness and nausea in extreme cases.
Management:
Make sure the patient is sitting in an upright position, pull the pinna or outer semicircle of the ear towards the back. This can help you see the object clearly and also loosen it to wiggle out. If you can see the object clearly, use a tweezers to grasp the object and gently remove.

In case a live insect gets trapped inside the ear lie down and place few drops of warm vegetable or baby oil. Use oil only if symptoms of eardrum perforation like pain, bleeding/discharge from the ear is absent.

Magnets are sometimes used if the object is metal

Cleaning the ear canal with water

A machine with suction to help pull the object out

Tilting the head to the affected side can facilitate gravity to dislodge the object.

After removal of the object, your child's physician will then re-examine the ear to determine if there has been any injury to the ear canal. Antibiotic drops for the ear may be prescribed to treat any possible infections.

Foreign bodies in the nose:
Symptoms: Pain and difficulty in breathing from that side of the nose. Management: Keep the uninvolved nostril closed by pressing a finger against the side of the nose and gently ask the person to blow from the affected nostril.
Suction machines with tubes attached
Instruments may be inserted in the nose

After removal of the object, your child's physician may prescribe nose drops or antibiotic ointments to treat any possible infections.

Foreign bodies in the throat: Symptoms: Choking, inability to breathe and speak  
Coughing at first
Wheezing (a whistling sound, usually made when the child breathes out) 

Although the initial symptoms listed above may subside, the foreign body may still be obstructing the airway. The following symptoms may indicate that the foreign body is still causing an airway obstruction:
Stridor (a high-pitched sound usually heard when the child breathes)
Cough that gets worse
Child is unable to speak
Pain in the throat area or chest
Hoarse voice
Blueness around the lips
Not breathing
 The child may become unconscious
 
Management: Perform Heimlich maneuver, abdominal thrusts, if trained otherwise, it is advised to call for medical help immediately.
How can you prevent foreign bodies from entering your ear, nose, throat?

Discourage talking, playing, laughing when food is in the mouth.
Do not give whole grapes, popcorn, nuts to children below 3 years.
Keep small objects out of reach of small children.
Teach children to avoid placing objects into their nose, ears.

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