Parenting
This simple system will save your baby’s life.
A former paramedic has shared a one-second trick to minimize the risk of your baby choking on a piece of food.
The video was posted by a child safety organization called Tiny Hearts Education, which was started by Nikki Jurcutz, a former paramedic, and her sister, Rach.
In the reel, they demonstrated that if you just put your index finger and thumb together to squish a piece of food, you can tell whether or not it’s safe for your baby.
If the food you’re holding isn’t able to be squished in between your fingers, then it’s not safe for your baby to chew – and could be a potential choking hazard.
“If you can’t squish it, your baby can’t chew it,” they wrote in text over the top of the Instagram reel.
In the clip, they showed their technique on a few different foods. They were able to squish a banana, a piece of avocado, a slice of cooked apple and a cooked carrot.
However, they were not able to squish a piece of raw carrot or a piece of raw apple – meaning that those didn’t pass the squish test.
“Foods that are round, hard, slippery and the size of an airway = increase the risk of choking,” they wrote in the caption of the post.
“The squish test helps you identify if the food is too hard so you can modify it to make is softer and safer.”
The Post reached out to Jurcutz for comment.
According to health officials, there are more than 12,000 children in the US who are taken to the emergency room each year for food choking injuries.
Choking is also the fourth leading cause of “unintentional death” in those kids who are under the age of five.
Experts recommend that parents or caretakers cut children’s food into small pieces to help prevent the risk of choking.
They also have guidance that includes not leaving a child unattended while they eat, not eating while walking or in a car and offering plenty of liquids at mealtime.
Some signs of choking can include the child having a “bluish skin color,” trouble breathing, an inability to make much sound or loss of consciousness.
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