is it normal?

Question

my child whos 3 has had trouble swalowing his food and and has had choking incidents three times in the last month! we almost lost him once and each time it was diffrent food? what should i do?

Answer 1

http://www.mealsmatter.org/CookingForFamily/FocusOnNutrition/index.aspx?action=detail&questionId=245
While most bite-sized foods seem like ideal choices to feed your toddler, many can be potential choking hazards. Children develop their swallowing reflexes and abilities to handle different sizes and textures of foods during their first few years of life. Until about age 4, the following foods are among those that should be avoided:
Popcorn
Hard candies
Chewing gum
Nuts
Raw carrots, beans, apples or pears
Raisins
Whole grapes, whole berries, cherries with pits
Whole olives
Potato chips
Hot dogs
Safer choices for your toddler can include bite-sized pieces of fruit, including sliced grapes (sliced length-wise) and apple slices without the peel, pieces of granola bar, yogurt, sliced cheese, and steamed veggies. Make sure to keep your child upright, and never leave him unattended while he is eating. Consider taking a CPR class to prepare you for potential choking incidents, and keep emergency information updated and handy.

http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/common/standard/transform.jsp?requestURI=/healthatoz/Atoz/hc/par/info/feedingguide.jsp
Foods that are choking hazards are still a concern, so for toddlers that are 2 to 3 years old, avoid the following foods:

Grapes - Whole grapes are a choking hazard for small children and should always be cut into small pieces before being offered.

Hot dogs - Slicing a hot dog lengthwise and then cutting it into pieces that are about a quarter-inch wide greatly reduces the risk of choking.

Peanuts and peanut butter - In addition to being highly allergenic, peanuts also present a choking risk for toddlers. Don't feed young children peanuts or peanut butter until the child is 3 years old.

Snacks - Since hard candy, lollipops, nuts, popcorn or other snacks are just the right size to become lodged in a small child's throat, great care must be used when offering them to toddlers. These foods are a choking risk.
http://www.metrokc.gov/health/childcare/choking.htm
Young children can be at risk for choking on food. Although children can choke on any food, foods that are hard or tough to chew, slippery, small and round, or sticky present an increased risk.

For example, toddlers (children learning to walk, typically 1 to 2 years old) have limited control of their mouth muscles and lack back teeth to grind up hard food. Food may slide back into the throat before it is completely chewed.

Children 3 to 4 years old may have back molars but are still learning to chew. They are often easily distracted while eating - a potential risk for choking.

Children choke either because a large object closes off the throat or because smaller objects block the airway into the lung.

What to look for when choosing foods for children

Many nutritious foods can be hazardous for young children unless cooked or cut into bite size pieces. Here are some foods that may cause problems:

SIZE
Both small and large pieces of food may cause choking.
Small hard pieces of food may get caught in the airway if they are swallowed before being chewed well. Larger pieces, more difficult to chew, are more likely to completely block the throat.
Nuts
Raw carrots, raw broccoli, raw cauliflower, etc.
Hard fruit especially with peels such as crisp apples

SHAPE
Food items shaped like a tube may cause choking because they are more likely to completely block the throat than other shapes.
Hot dogs
Link sausage
Whole carrots
Grapes
Frozen banana pieces

TEXTURE
Foods which are firm, smooth, or slick may slide down the throat into the airway.
Hard candy
Whole kernel corn
Peanuts, especially Spanish peanuts

Dry, hard food may be hard to chew yet easy to swallow whole.
Hard pretzels
Tortilla chips
Popcorn

Sticky foods can stick to the back of the mouth or roof of the mouth and block the throat. They are difficult to remove.
Nut butters alone
Processed cheese chunks/slices
Gummy bears, marshmallows
Fruit roll-ups

Hard to chew foods which are fibrous or tough.
Bagels
Steak, roast, other fibrous meats
Meat jerky
Toddler biter biscuits
Prevention is the Best Solution

Always supervise eating
Children do best when sitting to eat. It lets them concentrate on chewing and swallowing. Join the children at the table. Eating or drinking while running or playing is a distraction and can cause choking problems.

Decrease outside distractions
Such as television, games, pets, etc. during meals and at snack times.

Cut food into bite size pieces or thin slices.
Grind or mash tough food.

Cook food until soft, especially beans, pasta and rice.
These foods are favorites but need to be soft enough to chew easily.

Steam vegetables, such as carrots and broccoli.

Eating in cars/buses may also cause problems.
It is hard for the driver to safely pull over fast enough if a child is choking.

Serve small amounts of food at a time.
Keep portion size small. With babies be sure the mouth is clear before giving the child another spoonful of food.

Answer 2

hope this helps

The medical term for this swallowing difficulty is dysphagia. Specifically, your son has dysphagia for solids, of acute onset, which narrows the possibilities considerably. Here are the questions your son's doctors should be asking:

Is there any chance that your son has swallowed a foreign body (coins being the most common examples)? Your son may confess to this, but even if he denies it, an X-ray is certainly called for. Some objects, however, will not show up on X-ray. Many plastics, wood and some types of glass will not appear on X-ray. Thus, a barium swallow may be necessary. In this study, your son would swallow a barium solution. Barium will create a "shadow" around an object that might not otherwise be seen on an X-ray.

Has your son ever swallowed anything corrosive, such as Drano? Even if this occurred years ago, it is still possible that the scar tissue is only now severe enough to cause dysphagia.

Is your son taking any new medications? Some medications are known to cause dysphagia.

Does your son have any other known illnesses? Reflux, immune deficiencies, autoimmune diseases, connective tissue disorders and neuromuscular diseases may all be associated with dysphagia. These problems would each be associated with a variety of other symptoms. Thus, the doctor ought to ask whether your son is having any other unusual symptoms (vomiting, choking, coughing, hoarseness and so forth).


Only after the possibility of physical illness has been eliminated should the doctor consider the possibility of a behavioral/psychological problem. Is he under any unusual stress? Is there any upheaval in the family? Has he had unusual and unexplainable symptoms in the past?

His doctor's actions (prescribing an antibiotic) indicate that he/she thinks your son has an infection. One can certainly develop dysphagia from a very bad sore throat, but wouldn't your son tell you he had a sore throat? But he doesn't have a sore throat -- he says, "It won't go down." Thus, I doubt that he has a garden-variety sore throat (pharyngitis).


There are some fairly uncommon infectious diseases that may cause this problem, but they are rare enough to fall to the bottom of my list. The list of possible diagnoses includes: foreign body, chemical ingestion, medications, connective tissue disorders (such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis), diabetes, thyroid problems and neuromuscular diseases (such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy or Guillain-Barre syndrome). There are a number of gastrointestinal diseases that ought to be considered (e.g., esophageal spasm, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis). There could be a malignant or benign growth compressing his esophagus. Finally, his problem may be psychological.

As you can see, there are a lot of real nasties on this list. This problem must not be ignored. If he still has this problem, you must bring him back to his doctor and insist that he or she reevaluate him.

Answer 3

You could do a couple of different things.

1) Cut the food up into smaller bites
2) Put less food on the plate or high chair tray, so he/she isn't able to shovel so much in there
3) Give him/her snacks throughout the day if you think that the baby is hungry and is therefore eating too quickly
4) It's never too soon to teach table manners (take small bites and chew each one 20 times before swallowing, chew with your mouth closed, no talking with food in your mouth, etc)

Answer 4

Your child may be having some sort of dysphasia, or blockage in his throat, or stomach. take him to see a doctor at a nearby childrens hospital. Tell them about your incidents, and get him in asap.

Answer 5

I would take him to the doctor just to give you piece of mind. Maybe he is putting too much in his mouth or maybe just try cutting really small for him. Good luck!

Answer 6

i would talk to his Dr if you have not already they made need to do surgery to correct a problem with this.His throat may be to narrow for food to go down properly.I wish you all the best and good luck

Answer 7

take him to the doctor..... he might not be able to eat that kind of food... never know just call the doctor and see what they say

Answer 8

I suggest you take him to the doctor,because maybe his muscles in his throut are misplaced.

Answer 9

Try to teach him to chew better.Take smaller bites.Maybe the doctor could tell you something that you can't see.

Answer 10

Just take him to the doctor. Maybe he has reflux disease.