🛡️ Child safety · 0–6 years
🍬 Preventing choking and swallowing hazards
Young children explore with their mouths. Small objects and foods that are hard, round, sticky or difficult to chew can block the airway. Batteries and magnets can cause serious internal injury even without choking.
Useful safety checks
- Choose age-appropriate toys and check for loose parts and secure battery compartments.
- Store coins, button batteries, magnets, beads and older children's small toys in secure places.
- Do not rely on a cardboard-tube test alone: shape, texture and the child's abilities also matter.
Prevent hazards throughout the day
1. Check floors and shared spaces
Look under furniture and around bags for small objects. Ask visitors and older children to keep batteries, coins and small toy parts away from baby.
2. Prepare food for their skills
Begin solids around six months when baby shows readiness, including steady head control and sitting upright with support. Offer suitable soft textures; quarter grapes lengthways, soften firm produce and remove bones. Avoid whole nuts, popcorn, hard sweets and round sausage slices for young children. Give no honey before one year.
3. Stay close during eating
Seat your child upright and supervise without distractions. Do not offer food while they run, lie down or ride in a moving vehicle. Gagging can be noisy; choking may be silent.
4. Control suffocation and cord hazards
Keep plastic bags, balloons and broken balloon pieces inaccessible. Secure blind cords and keep other cords away from play and sleep spaces.
5. Keep infant sleep clear
Place baby on their back on a firm, flat mattress in their own crib or bassinet, in your room for at least six months. Keep pillows, loose blankets, toys and bumpers out. Bedsharing and sofa sleeping are not safe substitutes.
6. Know when to get help
If a child cannot breathe, cry or cough effectively, call 911 and use the age-appropriate choking response taught in professional training. Do not blindly sweep the mouth. Suspected battery or magnet swallowing needs immediate emergency assessment, even without symptoms.
Classic mistakes
- ❌ Assuming supervision makes any food safe Close attention matters, but food still needs suitable preparation and texture.
A local detail, or your own experience with this guide? Write to the team
Same topic
Read next
- Paternity Leave Act
- Maternity leave allocation
- Birth registration
- Family Code
- Emergency services
- Newborn screening
- Infant feeding
When in doubt, contact your doctor or midwife. For a life-threatening emergency, call 911.