Doctor Komarovsky about what to do if a child swallows a foreign object or chokes
Children are very curious and with great pleasure they taste the world around. That is why parents are not always able to protect them from swallowing various foreign objects or inhaling their parts.
Evgeny Komarovsky, a pediatrician of the highest category, tells how to act in such a situation.
What choke and is it dangerous?
Objects that a child can easily swallow or inhale, are very diverse, and the severity of the situation should be assessed on the basis of what is swallowed by the baby. It is clear that a small and smooth cherry bone, trapped in the digestive tract, will not cause any harm to the baby. You can not worry - after a while the crumb successfully goes to the toilet and in the fecal masses that same bone from the cherry will be found. The same can be said about the situations in which the child suddenly swallowed the gum.
Therefore, parents should evaluate the nature of the surface of the swallowed object, as well as its size.
Even if a child has swallowed a plastic part from the designer, it is only necessary to talk about danger if the part has sharp, jagged edges that could theoretically cut the esophagus or the intestinal wall.
The most dangerous items that are often swallowed by children are:
- tablet batteries and conventional finger batteries;
- screws;
- small nails;
- pins;
- coins;
- large buttons;
- glass;
- bones from plums, fish, chicken, date.
In this case, the parents must contact the medical institution, even if the child looks good and does not show any negative symptoms. Symptoms may appear later, and it is important to prevent this.
Nevertheless, a foreign body caught in the respiratory tract, rarely "behaves" without symptoms. And such an incident often requires emergency care. Indeed, a foreign object swallowed by itself, even if it is paper, a napkin, or if the baby choked on food, may well harm the child, but more often unreasonable and incorrect actions of parents scared to colic harm it.
Parents should at least roughly imagine not only the size and texture of the swallowed, but also the volume.
A harmless cherry stone will not harm if it is one, maximum two or three. But now a handful of such bones can cause intestinal obstruction.
What to do?
If a child has swallowed a foreign object and has begun to feel sick, Komarovsky does not advise parents to interfere in this most important process - the gag reflex is very wisely invented by nature just to rid the body of a foreign object.
If the object is swallowed and the baby does not manifest reflex attempts to get rid of it, but the object belongs to the dangerous group, it is important to immediately call an ambulance. While the doctors are traveling, the child should not be given anything from food or drink.
If the object is safe and does not bother the child in any way, then it is worth waiting until he leaves the child's body in a completely natural way along with feces during defecation.
It is much more difficult to deal with the situation when a child inhaled a small object.A foreign body stuck in the trachea, manifested by a strong suffocating cough, limited inhalation, cyanosis (blue skin and lips) may appear, the child may bulge his eyes, he suffocates and may even lose consciousness.
If the child is breathing, do not do anything, you need to wait for the ambulance. The maximum of what needs to be done if the baby has spontaneous breathing is to open wide open the air vents and ensure the inflow of large amounts of normal fresh air.
Attempts to knock the child on the back, shake upside down to the good will not bring - the subject can move further along the trachea and lead to mechanical asphyxiation.
If the foreign body is stuck in the gastrointestinal tract, the symptoms will depend on where it happened. With the blockage of the esophagus there are difficulties with swallowing, saliva is intensely flowing, there are pains in the chest region.
If the object is stuck in the stomach, the pain will be in the stomach, there will be unproductive urge to vomit. When a blockage of the intestine occurs abdominal pain, blood and mucus appear in the feces, there may be no bowel movement, there is bloating.
First aid
Komarovsky advises to provide first aid only if the child does not breathe. In this case, the reception of Heimlich, which every mother should know, will help. While the baby is coughing, this means that there is a chance that the body will get rid of the foreign object itself.
If the cough has stopped, and the object has not come out, you need to move to action.
- Take a position behind the child, getting the front part of the body to his back, hug him from behind with his hands.
- Make a fist with your right hand and place your thumb on the tummy between the navel and the ribs.
- An open palm of the second hand is placed on the fist from above and with a fast and precise movements press the fist into the stomach.
- Repeat as many times as necessary to clear the airways. If everything turned out, the skin becomes normal color, breathing is restored.
If the child is small, place it on a firm flat surface (on the floor) and take a kneeling position next to it. The middle and index fingers of mother's hands need to put the child in the same epigastric region described above, press gently, upwards towards the diaphragm.
If the child pushes something in the nose, Komarovsky recommends using the technique, which was called “mother's kiss”. The reception was invented in 1965 by Canadian emergency doctor Stephanie Cook.
The essence of the method is as follows:
- Mom puts her lips tightly to the child's mouth;
- hand closes the nostril free of foreign objects;
- strongly inhales the baby’s mouth;
- the air flow "presses" on a foreign object and it leaves a place in the nasal passages.
The method helps in about 60% of cases. But even if the reception was a success, the child should be examined by a doctor as soon as possible.
Another reception of first aid from Dr. Komarovsky, see the following video.
Prohibited parental actions
Dr. Komarovsky does not recommend taking any action if the child breathes, he is conscious, even if breathing is difficult.
While the ambulance is traveling, there will be a sufficiently open window and vigilant observation of the behavior and well-being of the baby by adults.
No need to try to push objects stuck in the esophagus or nose with any means at hand. Parents who have ever met or heard from the older generation of recommendations to give something hard to a stranded child, such as a bread crust or a cracker, may go so far.
If a potentially dangerous object is swallowed and vomiting does not occur, some parents risk laxatives or mechanically induce vomiting by pressing on the root of the tongue. An object that is too sharp, such as glass, being safely swallowed, can seriously injure the esophagus if vomiting occurs.
While you are waiting for the ambulance team to arrive, do not allow the child who choked to actively move, jump, run. And all the more you do not need to shake him, bang his fist on the back, shout, panic, and additionally frighten the child.
How to prevent accidents?
Unpleasant incidents and their possible negative consequences will help avoid careful attention to prevention.
Parents need to remember and strictly follow these guidelines.
- In the diet of the baby up to three years should not be food with pits - fish, chicken, fruits and vegetables must be cleaned.
- Do not allow your child to eat something while playing, while actively communicating with other children. Laughing while eating, hurried breathing may well cause the child to choke and start to choke.
- Make sure that the baby does not have toys with small details, so that he does not have free access to small objects at all.
- If the child, by virtue of age, is already able to understand what the parents want to convey to him, the danger of swallowing and inhaling foreign objects should be explained so that the child does not even try to shove one of them into the nose or throat, even if there are no parents nearby.
