Pediatric Otolaryngologist Nina Shapiro walks us through her recommended best practices for infants or toddlers eating. Some dos and don’ts on her list are no candy, nuts, or popcorn for children under three years old, and never allow your child to run or play while they eat. One child dies every five days in this country from choking on food.

Transcript:

Food choking is surprisingly common. One child dies every five days in this country from choking on food. About 10,000 kids each year visit the emergency room from choking accidents. If it were my choice, kids couldn't be on baby food 'til they're twelfth. This is not possible, but we do have to have some guidelines. Unfortunately, there are no guidelines set from the FDA or from the CDC regarding what is safe for children to eat. My recommendation is that toddlers, and by toddlers I mean kids under three, should not have candy of any kind, no lollipops, no nuts, no popcorn. Raw vegetables, you need to be very careful in kids under two or three also. The most common way to have a choking accident is a child who's running around while they're eating. The best way that you can prevent that is to have your child sit while they're eating. If they're running around while they're eating, if they're sitting in the back seat of the car while they're eating, you will not see them if they choke. You will not hear if they choke. By the time you realize that they've choked it could be too late and they may have already stopped breathing. The car is not a place for a child to eat. The playground is not a place for your child to eat unless they're sitting down with you. Look at your child while they're eating. The choking accidents that kids have can be silent. One of the most dangerous and unfortunately most common objects that a child can stick in their nose, ear, or throat is a disk battery. Disk batteries are everywhere. They are tiny, they are easy to swallow and it's easy to miss if your child does this. The unfortunate thing is that they cause rapid permanent damage to the tissues, including inside of the ear. There are two reasons for this. One is that the battery can generate a little bit of an electrical current that can cause damage to the tissue. The other is the warm environment of the ear, the nose, or the mouth can allow for some leakage of the battery fluid and it can also cause permanent damage. If you think your child has stuck a battery up their nose, a battery in their ear or swallowed a battery, they need to go to the emergency room right away. The damage is very quick and it can be permanent.