Friday, April 24, 2009

Choking

Eli inhaled a bunch of Cheerios today, and they got stuck.
I was eating my dinner, and look over to see Eli frantic and unable to make any noise.
I'm not the kind of person to panic, so I went over and wacked him on the back a few times.
When this didn't work I stuck my finger down his throat, I came up with a wad of Cheerios, but he still couldn't breathe.
I got him down off of the chair and started giving him the Heimlich, after 2-3 attempts, (okay now I'm alarmed) another mouth sweep then a couple of more Heimlich maneuvers he finally started coughing.
He coughed for awhile, and I've never been happier to hear my child choke!

Afterward I looked up the guidelines for choking.
What I did was similar to what they recommend, but my technique wasn't quite right.
I was also under the impression that you would only have to do the Heimlich once, or maybe twice, and was getting pretty worried after multiple failed attempts.
They recommend alternating 5 back blows, and 5 abdominal thrusts until the object is dislodged.
I think knowing that it might take a few tries would've reassured me I was doing the right thing.

3 comments:

runningfan said...

Scary! I've had to do that a couple of times, and it usually took longer for my heart rate to return to normal than my sons'!

Whit said...

I am so glad he is okay. Way to go Mom!!

Adrianna said...

Oh that is so scary! I hate when they choke! With Sterling is was always some stringy piece of meat or vegetable or something gross. I've never had to do the Heimlich though- I might to read up on those procedures... Glad Eli is breathing again!