Information on choking on food

What is Chocking on Food

Even though this condition is quite self-explanatory, chocking on food basically implies having food particles stuck in your breathing pathways instead in your stomach pathways. This can take place for many different reasons and there are many people who almost die due to chocking on food. Unfortunately many did lose their lives because of this deadly problem. Therefore, chocking on food is not to be neglected as a potential hazard. Thus, one is to be careful while eating directing the food to esophagus instead to trachea.

Reasons behind Chocking on Food

As you might presume, chocking on food is triggered by eating quickly and neglectfully. Basically, you should chew your food properly and make chunks of it as tiny as possible, making it easy for you to deliver it to your stomach and digest it later. However, many people eat incredibly fast, not chewing the food correctly. Moreover, they tend to talk, laugh and perform similar actions during their meals, causing chocking potentially.

Of course, the most endangered group, once it comes to chocking, are small children. While eating, they are prone to trying to put as much food as they can in their mouth and eat it quickly. Moreover, they can eat hard candy or some foreign objects like toy parts, marbles, coins etc. All these can get stuck in their air pathways, causing chocking and other health problems of this type.

As for the adults, improper eating, an underlying illness or a longer time of alcohol and drug abuse can increase one's proneness to chocking on food.

How to Help a Person Chocking on Food?

The first aid can be applying the Heimlich Maneuver technique. All you need to do is stand behind a person chocking, place your fist with your thumb inside below the patient's ribcage and apply pressure continuously until he/she spits the cause of chocking out. This technique can be helpful with people all ages. On the other hand, you can try CPR. If both of these fail, medical attention is a must and one needs to be treated by professionals. Then, he/she will be intubated so that he/she can breathe properly until the cause of the problem is removed.

All in all, since prevention is, by far, the best cure, be careful about what you eat and how you eat it. The same goes for your children. You are to teach them to eat slowly and properly, avoiding chocking at all times. Also, avoid giving your child toys with many parts, especially if these are the smaller ones.