🛡️ Child safety · 0 – 6 years

🍬 Preventing choking and swallowing hazards

Most choking incidents happen before the age of 6. Any item or piece of food smaller than a ping-pong ball is an ingestion or choking hazard.

Real talk

The toilet paper roll test: if an object fits completely inside the cardboard tube, it's too small and needs to be stashed way up high.

1. Small objects & risky foods
Never leave coins, marbles, hard sweets, button batteries, pen caps, hair clips, whole grapes, olives, or peanuts within grabby-hand reach.
2. Active supervision
Keep a close, undivided eye on them during meals and playtime. Silence is golden, unless you have a toddler: then it's suspicious.
3. Bags & cords
Put plastic bags, blind cords, belts, and scarves well out of reach (strangulation and suffocation risk).
4. Safe sleep
Put baby down on their back, alone in their cot, in a well-fitted baby sleeping bag, with no pillows, duvets, or mountain of soft toys (key for preventing SIDS).
5. Local guidance
Take an accredited local infant first-aid/CPR course. If baby cannot breathe, cry or cough effectively, call 000 and follow dispatcher instructions while providing trained choking first aid. If unresponsive, begin infant CPR as instructed. Do not use blind finger sweeps or give water. Suspected button-battery or multiple-magnet ingestion needs immediate emergency assessment even without symptoms.

A local detail, or your own experience with this guide? Write to the team