Preventing Choking Hazards in the Classroom
By: Angela Dalessio, EC-SEAT Scholar and Graduate Student in Early Childhood Special Education
Currently I am in a preschool classroom, and a situation has arisen that has caused the team to take a deeper look into what items can be seen as a choking hazard in our room.
We have a student who has multiple special needs, and has started to mouth different objects. Some examples are play dough, and more recently a unifix cube. The student managed to lodge the unifix cube at the back of his throat, which led to the Para professional to perform the Heimlich maneuver on him.
Due to this incident, our classroom has had to purchase a, "no choke tube," in order to measure different objects in our environment for safety precautions. The tube is 2.25 inches long by 1.25 inches wide, which is approximately the size of a fully expanded throat of a child under three years old.
Many tips and facts can be found online about preventing choking. Some ideas for prevention are monitoring the student while eating, notify parents so that when they are sending snacks in for the class they are aware of what could potentially cause a child to choke and monitor children while playing with different sized objects.
Even though most choking hazards are targeted towards children 3 and under, we need to be aware that it is still possible to be risky for older children to potentially choke as well.
I have included some links to information on safety and choking hazards below! Thanks for reading!
Currently I am in a preschool classroom, and a situation has arisen that has caused the team to take a deeper look into what items can be seen as a choking hazard in our room.
We have a student who has multiple special needs, and has started to mouth different objects. Some examples are play dough, and more recently a unifix cube. The student managed to lodge the unifix cube at the back of his throat, which led to the Para professional to perform the Heimlich maneuver on him.
Due to this incident, our classroom has had to purchase a, "no choke tube," in order to measure different objects in our environment for safety precautions. The tube is 2.25 inches long by 1.25 inches wide, which is approximately the size of a fully expanded throat of a child under three years old.
Many tips and facts can be found online about preventing choking. Some ideas for prevention are monitoring the student while eating, notify parents so that when they are sending snacks in for the class they are aware of what could potentially cause a child to choke and monitor children while playing with different sized objects.
Even though most choking hazards are targeted towards children 3 and under, we need to be aware that it is still possible to be risky for older children to potentially choke as well.
I have included some links to information on safety and choking hazards below! Thanks for reading!
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission - Small Parts Regulations: Toys and Products Intended for Use By Children Under 3 Years OldNY State Department of Health - Choking Prevention for Children
Choosemyplate.gov - Choking Hazards
Healthychildren.org - Choking Prevention
Angie
That must have been scary! Choking can happen at any age so checking your environment and being prepared signal better outcomes. I wonder if there is a sensory support that may help this student since he is still seeking oral input - keeping his mouth busy so he will use his hands to explore?
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