Earlier this week, a three-year-old in Indiana died after choking on a hot dog at the home of her babysitter. The real question is “why would anyone let a three-year-old eat a hot dog?” It’s the number one choking hazard food for kids. Each year, more than 10,000 children are sent to the hospital because of choking, and claim on average 13 lives a year. So what do we do about it?
Some have suggested putting big warning labels on hot dog packages. Pediatricians are calling for a “choke-proof” hot dog (one woman has invented the Flat Dog, but it’s only available in Connecticut). Or maybe the more important thing is to inform more parents, because hot dogs aren’t a choking hazard if you simply cut them up into bite-size pieces. And of course, we could always ban hot dogs completely.
So what do we do about hot dogs?
From WishTV. Photo by horizontal.integration.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I've always been paranoid about giving whole hot dogs to my daughter so I cut them up first. I guess the easiest thing to do would be a warning label mandate on all packages just like toys have for children under a certain age. They are soft so I can understand why some parents wouldn't worry about them, but kids tend to take rather large bites and not chew enough.
We noted this before – the sort of parents who tend to read warning labels are the sort who would cut their hot-dogs in the first place. Education is probably the best option, but unless there's a way to get the message out to a bunch of people, it's going to be tough. Maybe if someone like Oprah or some other famous person talked about it, it would get more attention. I don't know what most parents tend to watch, but getting some person with influence to bring this up would make the most sense.
As for kids taking large bites – that's gone on for a long time. I know my mom reminds me that I used to be one of them. There were times I felt my kid could almost fit a whole piece of pizza in her mouth. (Usually with the "you can have one more bite" warning preceding the huge bite.) We still watched over what they did and how big the bites were, though.
Is there a lot of hot-dog related choking going on? We used to always cut them into pieces, or at the very least, slit them down the middle.
Or just parent better.
Perhaps a warning label….not for children under 3, choking hazard
Once again, the people who read labels tend to already watch for choking hazards. See above response and the last article that was written about this for the past discussion.
Hot dogs are nasty anyway. I would suggest not eating them to avoid choking.
Lots of foods are choking hazards. Always make sure kids are eating them within adult supervision as well as cutting up foods into appropriate sizes.
I agree that a warning lable should be included. Although most parents know to cut hotdogs up into small pieces, some might over look it. I think a better option though would be just not giving the kids hotdogs to begin with. There is nothing good in them.
I think more parent education would be more effective. How about instead of a warning label require hot dog manufacturers to include a PSA in their commercials? Or there could be general PSA commercials about choking hazards for little ones (things like hot dogs, popcorn), I think that the parents who wouldn't think to cut up hot dogs are most likely to see a TV commercial than any other form of warning.
Don't serve hot dogs to little kids unless you cut them into little bitty pieces – then be a good parent and watch them while they eat it!!!
Agree with tesashel. I cut everything up for my son (almost 2) since just about anything is a choking hazard for him. He isn't left unsupervised while eating yet- and we try to teach him to 'take one…just one…' of whatever it is that is in front of him. Sure I am sick to death of cutting everything up by now, but the alternative isn't worth it for a second!!!!
jeebus people, anything you put into your mouth is a choking hazard? why are you calling out weiners? this is new news?