choking hazards

The other day while I was getting ready, my daughter entertained herself with toys. She came running back to my bedroom and handed my husband a rubber black ring. Seeing she had something in her mouth, he asked her to open it. When she did, there were two more black rubber rings the size of pennies on top of her tongue. Freaked out, he fished them out and asked her to put them back where she got them. We followed her to the culprit — a double-decker toy bus. The wheels are lined with rubber rings, which apparently come off easily for a 21 month old. Horrified by the vehicle's design, I immediately put it out of her reach.

Before I bought the toy, I checked for age restrictions and even inspected it for possible broken parts. I learned a valuable lesson — check the wheels to make sure all of their components are secure.

When it's time for your babe to start eating solid foods, it's time for mama's minor heart palpitations. While chewing and swallowing are second nature to you and me, it's something that every child has to learn. And part of the learning process can include gagging and choking scares.

When my wee one started eating solids, I was terrified. But one thing I found that helped her and gave me a lil piece of mind, was using the Baby Safe Feeder ($6). It was created by a father who almost lost his nine–month–old son to choking.

The nifty gadget allows you to put chewable foods like bananas and avocados into a mesh net, which has a tight screw on lid. Pass it on to baby and let her squeeze out the nutrients in safe portions. It can be messy, but your tot will find a sense of pride in feeding herself.

Children eat lots of circle shaped foods – hot dogs, carrots, bananas, squash, zucchini, etc. While it's easy enough to dice them into disc sized bites (as shown), it's not always the safest thing to do. Choking can happen easily if the chunk of food gets lodged in the esophagus the wrong way.

A quick and simple way to avoid this is to always cut the food down the middle – making two long halves, and then dicing it up so you'll have half circles instead of full ones. And for neurotic moms like myself, take the extra step and cut them into quarters.
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