An Irish GP has warned parents about a common choking hazard for babies that you may not even think about.
It is a parent’s job to look after their children and keep them out of harm’s way as much as possible. This includes making sure that there are no dangerous items around them when they are babies that they could accidentally choke on, pull down on themselves or hurt themselves in any way.
But accidents do happen, and sometimes we don’t actually realise that some things are as dangerous as they actually are.
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‘Hidden choking hazard’
Cork paediatrician Dr Niamh Lynch took to Instagram to warn parents about an often overlooked choking hazard, while sharing a terrifying story from mum, Justy, who is based in Ireland and has been through it with her little one.
In the video, the mum said that her son was ‘screaming’ during the night and wouldn’t take his bottle. So on further inspection, she discovered that he had something white stuck to the roof of his mouth.
‘Stuck to the roof of his mouth was this,’ the mum said holding up the little round sticker from the top of a pack of baby wipes.
We’ve all been there, given our crying baby the pack of wipes to play with when we are changing them, which is exactly what this mum did.
‘We all think that if they’re gonna stark choking on a baby wipe, we’re gonna see it,’ the mum told followers. However, the little sticker ‘was delayed by hours’ before the mum noticed it. ‘This was stuck to the roof of his mouth and he was sound asleep for at least three hours’ before he ‘woke up screaming’ the mum said.
Stickers are dangerous
People took to the comments on both Dr Lynch’s video and the original mum’s video, sharing their own stories of why stickers are so dangerous.
‘A childminder I know had a child put a sticker in his mouth and it blocked his airway. He turned blue. Paramedics called, they managed to get him breathing but couldn’t get the sticker out and it got lodged again on the way to the hospital. Thankfully, the poor bubs is OK but a scary and precautionary tale,’ said one viewer.
‘I feel like this should be on every parents radar… who doesn’t hand their baby the wipes to keep them still?’ another person added while a third said: ‘omg ty mama I legit give my daughter wipes all the time to play with!’
