5 Steps for Dealing With Infant and Child Choking
Choking occurs when a foreign object blocks the airway. In first aid, individuals who have not yet reached puberty are considered to be children and infants are between 0 and 12 months old.
What to do if a child or infant is choking:
Cough – Encourage the child to cough. You can coach them by demonstrating some exaggerated coughs yourself.
Child backslaps – If they cannot cough, try a firm backslap; leaning the child over your knee, with their head below their chest. Infant backslaps – For infants, lay the baby face down over your thigh to perform backslaps, much lighter and using your wrist as a pivot. Support their head whilst holding their chin and opening their mouth. Followed by 4 more backslaps if the object is not dislodged. Continually check to see if the casualty can breathe or speak (or cry).
Abdominal thrusts on a child – Attempt an abdominal thrust. This can be achieved by kneeling behind the child, wrapping your arm around them from behind, placing your fist just above their belly button and pushing in and up in a scooping movement upwards. Try a further 4 thrusts, continually checking if the casualty can breathe or speak (or cry). Do not attempt Abdominal Thrusts on an Infant. Instead, use chest thrusts: lay them face up across your thigh, with their head down and feet up. Perform chest thrusts using two fingers. (You may consider phoning 999/112 at this stage if there is no movement of the blockage).
Repeat – 5 back slaps followed by 5 abdominal thrusts/chest thrusts until the object is dislodged.
If they collapse – If the casualty collapses and stops breathing, call Emergency Services and start CPR.
