Dr. Zorba Paster: Take action to prevent choking

I have the most perfect granddaughter anyone has ever had. I know I’m bragging, but that’s what I’m supposed to do. I’m Grandpa. That’s my job.

But my other job is to protect her from all sorts of potentially dangerous things – by making sure the house is childproof. There’s putting plastic plugs into those unused outlets, getting the kitchen cabinets secured, making sure those porcelain plates we got from Nova Scotia don’t fall on her head, putting plastic corners on all of our end tables. These are chores we’re all willing do to keep those young’uns safe and sound.

Every time she comes over she’s hungry. Like all kids – and all adults who are like kids – she’s looking for something fun to eat, something nutritious like grapes. Think about how delightful they are to a child – small, round, sweet with a good smell – but if swallowed wrong, they can clog the windpipe, ending in disaster.

Recently published research from the British Medical Journal talked about a 5-year-old girl who choked on a grape while being served at an after school club. Numerous attempts were made to remove the grape from the girl’s trachea, but the efforts failed and she ultimately died. The grape clogged her trachea.

The next case was a 17-month-old boy who was eating at home when he also choked on grapes. Paramedics were called but again the young child died.

We’re used to making sure children don’t get popcorn or peanuts if they’re under age 4, but too many parents aren’t educated as to the danger of grapes.

One to two children die from choking in the U.S. every week. Here are several prevention tips:

Cut hot dogs into small pieces, lengthwise; cut grapes into quarters, and do the same for those small grape tomatoes.

Don’t give toddlers high-risk food such as hard candy, nuts, seeds or raw carrots.

Never let children run around while eating or, for that matter, lie down flat on their back.

Keep coins out of their hands – a coin in a toddler’s hand is a joy to swallow.

When looking at small toys, read those labels. If you’re unsure whether a toy poses a choking risk, make sure you use a “small parts test device,” available in most toy stores.

Parents and other caregivers should know CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation so they can jump in should the need arise. It just might save your child’s life.

Accidental poisoning is another danger to young children. Last year, there were more than 2 million poisonings, with 90 percent occurring in ages 5 and under. Those curious hands go under kitchen counters, where they find cleaning sprays. Kids ingest those ubiquitous, brightly colored laundry detergent pods that have become so popular. And don’t get me going on the basement work bench and the garage – these places are just a child’s toxic waste dump ready to be consumed.

A house can be a dangerous place, and when you look at the national numbers you can see we aren’t doing a very good job making household safety a higher priority. We might be putting our kids in car seats the right way, but we aren’t making our homes as safe as we could.

While we’re on the subject of toddler safety, let me chime in on the topic of teen safety as well. Too many grandparents, aunts and uncles and parents too have their drug bottles out in the open for a visiting teen, or their visiting friend, to see with their prying eyes.

You remember that being a teen means being curious. You were a teen once. Weren’t you curious? Of course, you were. While most poisonings occur in younger children, too many also occur in teens. This is especially true for pain killers, such as opioids, and for sleeping pills. Put them in the hands of teens and they’re in the wrong hands, by definition.

But let us not forget the most commonly ingested poisons by teens in Wisconsin and everywhere else – alcohol. If you have liquor in the house, how sure are you that they won’t take a nip or even take the bottle?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 4,000 teens die from alcohol every year in one way or another. When high school students were asked questions about drinking in the last 30 days, one-third said they drank some alcohol, 20 percent had been binge drinking, and 1 in 5 had ridden with a driver who had been drinking. I find these numbers staggering. And if you don’t, perhaps you should think again. Your child is at risk just like my children were.

We live in Wisconsin, which is a drinking culture state. It seems like someone is always offering me a drink of some sort, and I don’t mean Coca-Cola. There are some parents – and I could name a few my kids knew when they were younger – who have a lackadaisical attitude. They think, well, I drank when I was younger, my kids should be able to drink, too. Hmmm … guess what I’m thinking.

It’s important for each and every parent – and, for that matter, grandparents, aunts and uncles and perhaps good family friends – to think about teen drinking as part of their childproofing activities.

My spin: Making a house safe to visit means thinking inside the box. Look at every room a visiting child may go into and ask, is this room safe? What could they get into? That’s smart. Stay well.