New Year ‘s Eve is just around the corner, and with it the tradition of drinking the twelve ‘lucky’ grapes, which dates back to 1909 and arose on the occasion of a surplus harvest in Alicante. Everyone in the family, including children, often participates in it; However, we should be aware of the danger for the smallest of the house to eat whole grapes, since, according to the doctors, children under five years of age can suffocate when ingesting them .
Not surprisingly, at that age food accounts for more than 50% of choking episodes that are fatal and grapes are the third most common cause of drowning, only behind hot dogs and candy . This is stated in an article recently published by the BMJ group’s Archives of Disease in Childhood magazine.
The study cites three cases of children seen by the emergency services after eating whole grapes . Two of them, aged 5 years and 17 months respectively, died of asphyxiation. In the third case, a 2-year-old boy, the emergency services were able to arrive very quickly and save the little one; he made a full recovery, but only after spending five days in intensive care.
As the authors explain, drowning in young children occurs due to the size of their airways –smaller than whole grapes– , because they do not have sufficiently developed teeth to chew properly, because their swallowing reflex is immature. still as they are easily distracted.
Also, and unlike what happens with harder foods, such as walnuts, the smooth surface of a grape causes an airtight seal to form in the respiratory tract, which makes its extraction more difficult if you do not have a appropriate medical equipment .
For this reason, experts advise that foods such as grapes, or cherry tomatoes, be cut into pieces of a suitable size before giving them to children under five years of age. They also insist on the importance of having an adult supervising the children while they eat.
