The choking risk to children of swallowing whole grapes is not widely understood, a doctor warns today.
But "deaths from choking are a major cause of childhood mortality, especially in the very young," say Dr Jamie Cooper of Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital, UK, and colleagues.
Writing in Archives of Disease in Childhood today (21 December) they state: "Whole grapes are ideally suited to cause paediatric airway obstruction and, though regularly implicated, knowledge that this popular fruit, and other similarly shaped foods, is a choking hazard is not widespread."
In their article, they outline the cases of three children who arrived at hospital after choking on a whole grape. "Increased dissemination of the learning points among health professionals working with children may aid in the prevention of further episodes," they believe.
Each of the three children needed emergency treatment, and two children, a five year old and a 17 month old, died after going into cardiac arrest. The child who survived, a two year old, had to spend five days in intensive care.
The authors write: "The airways of young children are small; they don’t have a full set of teeth to help them chew properly; their swallow reflex is underdeveloped; and they are easily distracted, all of which puts them at risk of choking."
Dr Julie-Ann Maney of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health comments: "Any injury, accident and death is a tragedy but it is even more so when that injury, accident or death could have been prevented.
"Sadly situations like those outlined in this paper are not all that uncommon. To prevent accidents like these from happening, I would urge all parents to cut food up into small pieces to avoid a seemingly harmless situation turning into a deadly one."
Lumsden, A. J. and Cooper, J. G. Case report: The choking hazard of grapes: a plea for awareness. Archives of Disease in Childhood 21 December 2016 doi 10.1136/archdischild-2016-311750 [abstract]
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