Would You Know What Do If Your Baby Was Choking
Yesterday we experienced every parents worst nightmare!!!!
While it’s still raw, I need to share my story to everyone with babies/children just so people know how quickly a child can choke & stop breathing etc in a matter of seconds/minutes.
Theo nearly died yesterday 😭 because he choked on some food (uk guideline correctly sized finger foods of egg mayo sandwich soldiers & soft melon sticks)
He has eaten this so many times before. Melon & anything on bread are some of his favourite foods.
The reason I am telling you is because most of you know how Theo is such an incredible eater & I always had the attitude “It will never happen to me because I’m so careful” I Always sit with him when he eats, I always chopped his foods into “non choking small sizes”.
I am always so careful, Yet it still happened & We nearly lost our baby.
I was sat next to him while he was eating in his high chair when i accidentally kicked my coffee over. (I think at that moment I must have startled him while he had food in his mouth 😭)
You know what it’s like when a drink spills, you naturally jump out your seat & leg it to the kitchen for some kitchen roll or tea towels etc. It took me seconds to run to the kitchen & back.
I chucked down 5 squares of kitchen roll & that’s all it took time wise. I took my eyes off him for Seconds!!!!!
I heard a muffled sound, I looked over at Theo to find him slumped to the side of his high chair, blue lips & eyes rolled to the back of his head, having a seizure.
Some people don’t know the difference between gagging & choking and think they need to listen for a cough to know their baby is chocking.
THERE WAS NO COUGH TO WARN ME!!!!
Because there was absolutely no air going in or out!!!!
He stopped breathing & his whole body went so blue & lifeless he looked dead 😭 An image that just keeps flashing back over & over in my head, that feeling of complete terror as my heart was ripping into a million pieces as I thought I was going to have to say goodbye to the most precious little soul in my life 💔 a moment I’m not sure I will ever get over.
If it wasn’t for the fact me & Jamie knew first aid & knew to keep going with back blows & chest thrusts until he could breathe . And most importantly called for an ambulance immediately at the start, while I was doing the back blows etc, Jamie was on the phone. I think one more minute & he would have died 😭
The moment I felt his little body give up, followed by blood coming out his mouth was the moment we both completely lost our shit with panic. I think the whole road could hear our desperate screams. Reality kicked in that we could lose him, because nothing was working.
But amazingly we managed to get him back after jamie blew a hard, quick breath into his mouth, that must have dislodged whatever it was.
HE TOOK HIS FIRST BREATH 🙌🏽 after what felt like forever trying to stop him choking. After a few more breaths, He came round all disoriented at first & just wanted to cuddle. Phew….
But Panic wasn’t over 😫 5 minutes later he had another seizure I’m guessing from lack of oxygen. (Both thinking here we go again, screaming at the operator on the phone, begging her to help us)
I had to Put him into the recovery position on the floor & had to sit next to him helplessly while he went in & out on consciousness until the ambulance arrived with some oxygen.
We were taken to hospital & after lots of checks he was so incredibly brave & strong he was sent home later that same night.
The photo is of him totally exhausted having a lovely snooze in daddy’s arms, having his final check before we went home.💙
This isn’t an attention message in any way, because he is absolutely fine now!
it’s purely to make people aware of how easily something like this can happen.
And please please please do not have that same attitude I did that “it won’t happend to me because I’m so careful”
It doesn’t matter how careful you are, accidents still happen & this happened in a matter of seconds!!!!
If your baby was to choke & stop breathing would you honestly hand on heart know what to do???
Because if you don’t….
please take 10mins of your time to read the NHS advice for choking page.
• https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/helping-choking-baby/
And the short YouTube clips of what to do when a baby/child chokes including CPR
• https://youtu.be/I3pvuYMcPg4
• https://youtu.be/aXaLc-AwX2g
I can honestly say through all the panic & upset that our slight memory of first aid helped us save our baby’s life.
Our story could have been so different but
We feel so incredibly lucky that he is still alive! 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙
There must have been a guardian angel watching over us yesterday 💕😇
Please feel free to share this story to all your baby mumma friends, I’ll make it public so people can
***EDIT*** also ask your friends and family that look after your little ones the exact same question above…. what would you do?
If they can’t answer, get them to watch the videos too 😊
Credit https://www.facebook.com/alex.skillen.1
