Translated by Denise Schwab

This warning was issued in February, 2010 by Pediatrics the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
 

Asphyxia is the leading cause of preventable illness and death among children below 3 years old. Food, coins and toys are the leading cause of asphyxia causing injury and death. Features such as shape, size and consistency of certain toys and foods increase the potential of stifling children.

In the United States were reported 449 deaths due to asphyxia caused by objects among children under 14 years old between the years of 1972 to 1992. About 65% of these fatalities occurred in children under 3 years old. Currently the U.S. receives more than 15 000 children in the emergency room because of asphyxia. Latex balloons are responsible for 29% of deaths. Asphyxia by food kills, only in the United States, approximately one child every 5 days. Among the foods, the popular hot dog is the one that causes more deaths, being responsible for 17% of cases of suffocation in children under 10 years old.
 

The Hot Dog is in the “perfect” shape, size and consistency to completely close the airway of a child. "If the world's best engineers wanted to create the perfect blockage of the trachea of a child, it would be in the form of a hot dog," says Gary Smith, director of the Injury Research Center of Columbus children's hospital in the U.S. state of Ohio. "I am a doctor for pediatric emergencies, and try to extract the hot dogs after becoming trapped in the trachea is almost impossible," he added. Other risk foods are hard candies, nuts, seeds, popcorn, grapes, raw carrots, apples, marshmallows and chewing gum.
 

According to research, children under 4 years old are the ones most at risk of choking on food. Until the completed development of dentition, the child will have difficulties in grinding the food properly, especially the raw food, and it is required some adjustments in the preparation of the food for this age as well as an adult supervision during the meal.  Sausages, grapes, carrots and apples should be cut in the size of a pea to be offered to a child.

Another factor that increases the risk of choking on food is the fact that the child be more careless when they are doing something (for example eating), a factor that worsens when adults allow children to eat while they are playing, running, playing video games or watching TV. Even talking, laughing and eating too fast can increase the risk of suffocation. A joke too common and too risky is that in which they play up small food and take it directly with the mouth.

It is possible that public policies for warnings on packaging and regulations about the presentation of the product are made in different countries based on this alert. Furthermore, we know that awareness and public education regarding this risk are essential. But most important is the care, attention and prevention of the person who is caring for the child. We know that these hazards live in our house, so it is important the responsibility and the vigilance of the adult caregiver, who with his attitude can save the lives of our children. 

Source: www.pediatrics.org accessed on 05/03/2010.