🛡️ Child safety · 0–6 years
🍬 Preventing choking and swallowing hazards
Young children explore with their mouths. Choking risk depends on shape, texture and size—not one simple measurement. Keep small objects inaccessible, prepare food carefully and learn infant and child choking first aid.
Check the environment
- Secure battery compartments and lock away spare button batteries, magnets, coins, beads and small toy parts.
- Check floors and low surfaces, including after visitors or older children have played.
- Keep balloons, plastic bags and cords out of reach; follow toy age guidance.
Everyday prevention
1. Start solids when ready
Introduce solids around six months when baby has the developmental readiness to eat safely, including good head control and supported upright sitting. Ask your child-health clinician if unsure.
2. Prepare food for your child's skills
Quarter grapes and small tomatoes lengthways, remove stones and bones, and soften hard vegetables. Avoid whole nuts, popcorn, hard sweets and round sausage slices for young children. Offer nut butter thinly spread or mixed into food, not in spoonfuls. No honey under one year.
3. Supervise seated meals
Keep your child upright and seated with an attentive adult nearby. Do not feed while they are running, lying down or riding in a moving vehicle. Gagging can be noisy; severe choking may be silent.
4. Remove non-food hazards
Keep bags, blind cords, necklaces and small objects inaccessible. Suspected swallowing of a button battery, multiple magnets or a sharp object needs immediate emergency assessment, even without symptoms.
5. Keep sleep spaces clear
Place baby on their back on a firm, flat mattress in their own cot, in your room for at least six months. Use a fitted sheet, with no pillows, blankets or toys. Choose clothing suitable for the local temperature and keep hats off indoors; adult beds and sofas are not safe alternatives.
6. Know how to call for help
If your child cannot breathe or cry, becomes blue or goes floppy, call 999 or 112 and follow trained age-appropriate first aid and dispatcher instructions. Do not blindly sweep inside the mouth. Emergency response is not guaranteed; plan backup transport, and have another adult arrange urgent help while you provide first aid.
Classic mistakes
- ❌ Assuming a size test proves safety Soft balloons, sticky food and oddly shaped objects can still block an airway. A cardboard tube is not a safety certification.
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When in doubt, contact your doctor or midwife. For a life-threatening emergency, call 999 or 112.