We've been very focused on keeping baby safe these days. He's mobile and getting around like anything. He crawls a sort of a half crooked crawl, he cruises along the furniture and he's moving about the room getting into everything. He even stand hands free for a few seconds. He's eight months and this is around the time we as a family have to be super careful about his safety.
No more sleeping in our bed with pillow shields. He has to be in his crib because he crawls and stands as soon as he awakes. We have to do constant sweeps off the floor to keep tiny bits away and out of his mouth. We have to watch him closely around our electronics because he loves to sneak cords in his mouth. We are just busy, busy, busy around here keeping baby safe.
We had an incident about two weeks ago that was pretty scary. Baby was in the back seat of the car with his older sister, my 9 year-old. She was feeding him some yogurt bits that we bought him. The box said it was for crawlers. We looked at them and they seemed a little bigger than the other little bites we've given him like O-shaped cereal and veggie- flavored puffs. However, allowed his sister to feed him the bits without breaking them. After about three or four of these yogurt bits, my 9 year-old started screaming "He can't breathe". The baby was getting red, he couldn't breathe and he was choking. We pulled over the car, and I hoped in the back and did a finger sweep to the back of his throat. Everything came out. He was very upset and cried a lot. Baby girl was upset too! She cried, but she really was the hero. Without her vigilance, who knows what would have happened.
After it was all over I popped one of the yogurt melts in my mouth see what exactly caused this problem. The first thing I noticed is that they had like a peanut butter effect in my dry mouth. The little bite was sort like a meringue texture. I could immediately see how that texture and that size melt could be a hazard.
I emailed the company and gave them a heads up about the incident. They apologized profusely and sent me some coupons. Here's what I learned from this episode in parenting:
- Thank God for teaching the girls about watching their little brother. When I told my oldest daughter about the incident, she told me that she had to do a finger sweep to the back of his throat once too. I am glad that we communicate with them about the basics of baby safety and feeding.
- GO WITH YOUR INSTINCTS!!!! My husband looked at the melt and thought it was too big for him and I looked at the texture and thought it was too dry. We were both right, but ignored out instincts.
- Feeding in a rear-facing car seat might not be the best thing to do. I never heard any warnings against it, but I think feeding in a rear-facing is out for us.
- Always let a company know about any concerns, so that they have a chance to add extra warnings or modify their product.
