3 ms·

There's a good article on stats.org that examines the statistics and concludes that this whole thing, as with many public health stories, is overblown: http://s

There's a good article on stats.org that examines the statistics and concludes that this whole thing, as with many public health stories, is overblown: http://stats.org/stories/2010/choking_hot_dog_feb23_10.html http://stats.org/stories/2010/choking_hot_dog_feb23_10.html The key finding: "it is reasonable to assume, based on this data, that the number of children who die from choking on hot dogs is somewhere between 1.5 and 5 per year in the United States. The risk is overwhelmingly to children aged three and under, based on the natural tendency of infants to put stuff in their mouths. While each death is a terrible tragedy, it is not clear that this is something that this amounts to a “significant and unacceptable choking hazard” to the public warranting recall procedures, product changes and more warnings than already exist. The problem with the American Academy of Pediatrics paper is that it uses percentages without the context of frequency, so that you end up comparing percentage fatalities for widely different time periods without any indication of the actual number of deaths."

ryanhuff 17y ago
My son (3 years old at the time) choked on a hot dog while at an amusement park. My wife was unsuccessful at dislodging it, but luckily, somebody near by helped her out. The whole episode lasted around 30 seconds. Scary stuff for my wife (I wasn't there). Son ended up going to the hospital. Now (age 5), we cut his hot dogs lengthwise before serving, but he had a couple of choking episodes while eating other things (grapes).
ktsmith 17y ago
I'd be much more interested to know how many parents of children that have died from choking were trained in CPR techniques. I would be willing to bet that almost none of them were. Having a one year old and having had to clear his airway once myself and having watched my wife do it twice, I find it appalling that more people don't bother with this type of training. It doesn't take long, isn't expensive, and can save not only the life of your own child but the life of someone else as well. Even with the appropriate training you won't always be successful and a 911 call may be necessary, but being able to try to clear the airway while you wait several minutes for responders to arrive can mean the difference between life, death, and brain damage from lack of oxygen.

ryanhuff 17y ago

My son (3 years old at the time) choked on a hot dog while at an amusement park. My wife was unsuccessful at dislodging it, but luckily, somebody near by helped her out. The whole episode lasted around 30 seconds. Scary stuff for my wife (I wasn't there). Son ended up going to the hospital. Now (age 5), we cut his hot dogs lengthwise before serving, but he had a couple of choking episodes while eating other things (grapes).

ktsmith 17y ago

I'd be much more interested to know how many parents of children that have died from choking were trained in CPR techniques. I would be willing to bet that almost none of them were. Having a one year old and having had to clear his airway once myself and having watched my wife do it twice, I find it appalling that more people don't bother with this type of training. It doesn't take long, isn't expensive, and can save not only the life of your own child but the life of someone else as well. Even with the appropriate training you won't always be successful and a 911 call may be necessary, but being able to try to clear the airway while you wait several minutes for responders to arrive can mean the difference between life, death, and brain damage from lack of oxygen.