Tonight millions of people will celebrate the arrival of a new year and many of them, according to tradition, will eat a grape with each bell. Many children will do it too, but in the case of the little ones, what is considered a game (let's see who eats them faster), becomes a big danger: the grapes have the ideal way to produce a drowning or suffocation.
So, if you were thinking of putting twelve grapes tonight to the little ones too, think twice if it is a good idea, or think at least if there is a way to give them so that they are not dangerous.
They are soft, small and do not fall apart
If you asked me about the characteristics that a food has to have in order to suffocate a small child, I would tell you that it has to be small enough to be able to be breathed, soft so that it can pass well and impact on the airway and be unable to get rid with saliva or water.
In Babies and more These are the foods that children drown more easilyIt seems that I am describing the grapes, right? Well yes, the grapes are like that and that's why they are one of the foods that children suffocate most, but not the only one. As we told you a few months ago (I take this opportunity to remember because this is important):
The foods most commonly associated with fatal asphyxiation among children are hot dogs. Hot dogs share the physical characteristics described above for high-risk toys. They are cylindrical, the size of the airways and compressible, which allows them to get firmly stuck in a child's hypopharynx and completely occlude the airways.
Other high-risk foods are hard candies and candies, peanuts and nuts, seeds, whole grapes, raw carrots, apples, popcorn, peanut butter pieces, marshmallows (or "clouds" ") and the gum. Many of these foods, such as round candies, grapes, marshmallows and meat / sausages, share the same high-risk physical characteristics that create effective plugs for the infantile airway.
Similar to rubber balloons, peanut butter can adjust to the airways and form a stubborn seal that is difficult to displace or extract. It is noteworthy that many foods with high-risk characteristics associated with suffocation are human made. These foods are designed and, therefore, are susceptible to change, unlike naturally occurring food products such as certain fruits and vegetables.
Food manufacturers that are frequently consumed by children should, as far as possible, design these products in a way that minimizes the risk of suffocation in the children's group.
Sausages are the most, although an important issue should be distinguished: the frequency. This study is done in the United States, where children are sure to eat a lot of hot dogs. If, for example, they eat once a week and suffer a choking episode once a year (I make it up), it could be said that a child has to eat 52 hot dogs to get drowned.
If we talk about grapes, which surely eat very few times, let's put three times a year, but there is also an episode of suffocation, we could say that a child has to eat grapes three times to drown.
With this I am only saying that the one that most frequently produces asphyxiation is hot dogs, but that that does not mean that it is the most dangerous (The children also suffocate with the apple, some with the bread even, and that does not mean that they are very dangerous, because they are foods that they consume almost every day).
And I do not say it to defend the sausages (you have to cut them, better along and not sliced), but to understand that there are even more dangerous foods, which appear in the statistics despite the fact that children barely consume them ( Nuts are also mentioned as causes of asphyxiation, and young children feel they eat them: imagine how dangerous they become).
In addition, I add something: they talk about the fact that peanut butter is very dangerous. In Spain it is barely consumed, but we do eat triangular cheeses which are also super dangerous because of the consistency in which they are manufactured. Beware of this, that they remain attached to the airway with amazing ease and it is very difficult to get them out of there.
How do we give them the grapes tonight?
Returning to the topic at hand, Grapes, tell you that there is a way that you can eat them with hardly any risks. First, according to their age, avoid competition. Eating fast is calling danger, so if they are under 5 or 6 years old, it is better not to do the grape by bell.
The second is modify the shape of the grape. If it is dangerous due to its natural form, we will modify it: removing the skin is a good way to take away the possibility of having an unperturbed round shape, and if we also cut it into two or three pieces, the danger will be minimal.
Also, when you open them, we can remove the seeds if I had them, so instead of putting 12 grapes we can put 12 pieces of grape. Or five, or nine, or fourteen ... because in the end the important thing is not that they try to eat them in 12 bells, but that they eat them with us because it is a tradition, but not (yet) a competition.
