Submitting this as unregistered for privacy....

The two year old I watch may have swallowed my older childs' "Pop the Pig" cheeseburger game piece. It is the size of a quarter, 1 cm tall.

There is a call into her pediatrician as well as mine since her mom couldn't get through to her doc since we were concerned with whether or not it will pass through.

The child called my name to show me something was in her mouth so I rushed over to her and by the time I got to her she had thrown up a very small amount of pretzels that she had just finished at lunch. I asked her what she had in her mouth and she said it was a pretzel. I asked if she put a game piece in her mouth and she said no. I asked her again "What did you choke on" and she said pretzel again. She had just gotten done with lunch in the last few minutes before this. I didn't think I saw a pretzel in her mouth. I cannot find one purple cheese burger. (We were also missing a red one, but that one was found under the couch...my point being is I am not sure if all the burgers were there to start with.) My first thought was that it would be to large to swallow without actually choking.

Has this or anything similar happened to anyone? I feel awful and scared. I cannot say with 100% certainty either way. Please withhold any "they should not have that game because the pieces are too small" etc. as I already feel awful and have learned. When this happened, I was within sight and earshot.

Thank you for any help.

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Happened to me with my daughter when she was very little. I found her with a bolt, and the bolt was supposed to have a wing nut on it she got it pulled out of the thing it was in. I couldn't find the wing nut anywhere. It was in the evening so called doc in the morning since she wasn't choking or anything. He said we could do an xray to see if it was there, but it would likely come out on it's own. He said if it was there we would give it time. Got the xray and it wasn't there. Never did find it though, maybe it had always been missing who knows. The doc said usually what goes in comes out.

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I have no advice just a I had something happen this summer, and boy do I remember that sick feeling one gets when something happens.

Kelly

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Sounds like your doing what you can in that situation. Monitor her the rest of the day to make sure she's not in discomfort or anything. And let parents know the proactive steps you took like calling the doctors. Things happen.

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I might also write up an incident report and all you have done. Just in case.

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Thank you everyone!!! Grateful to hear that I am not the only one these things happen to, not that I am glad things happen for you guys but you know what I am saying.

She has been acting fine and herself, breathing seems normal to me and swallowing normally/not drooling. Both of our doctors called back and said the same thing:
this too shall pass =) (sorry, but I had to).

DCM understands that things happen and isn't upset but it was an eye opener for me for sure. Thank you all again!!

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Last year I had dck that would not leave the pea stone, that we have in the playground area, alone. He would throw it, eat it, etc. I have to watch him like a hawk. One day I thought for sure he stuck one in his ear! I panicked, called mom who came and took him to the docs. Turned out he didn't have anything in his ear, and dcm appreciated me being overly cautious. I was so relieved. Whew!

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This is NOT meant to freak you out at all but ANY time a child ingests something (ANYTHING) that is not meant to be eaten, or ANY time a child chokes on something you need to send them to a Dr.

I do NOT care what the Dr on the phone said and here is why:

A few weeks ago a little boy in a daycare an hour from me choked on a piece of food. The provider did the Heimlich and the child began to breath normally.

A call went to BOTH mom (a nurse) and a Dr. Mom also called the Dr.

ALL Dr.s said as long as the child is breathing fine again, do not worry.

Child was laid down for a nap. Child was later found unresponsive. Provider called 911 and the child died at the hospital.

Apparently the piece the child choked on did not come out. In the chaos of the situation, no one thought to actually look for it. Their main concern was breathing...kwim?

From what I understand the piece "moved" during the Heimlich and that allowed the child to breath again. However, during nap time (maybe due to the horizontal position, who knows) the piece moved and lodged in the airway and basically suffocated the child.

Because of that, ANY TIME a child chokes, ingests or swallows something they shouldn't, I would IMMEDIATELY request that the child be picked up and brought to the Dr by the parents. Unless 911 is warranted.

I know that was probably a 1 in 100,000,000 thing but in this business one can never be too sure and that is NOT a risk I would be willing to take.

Like I said, I am not trying to freak you out....I am merely sharing a story that should make ALL of us be more diligent, careful and hyper-sensitive to these kinds of things. I KNOW things in care happen but the difference between that same scenario happening at home and happening in daycare is criminal. No matter what the intent or follow up is.

OP~ I am sorry this happened and I am glad you see a learning moment in it but please, call the mom and have the child picked up....just to be sure.

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Things happen

My own kids have that game. I think it would be difficult to swallow one of those burgers. It could happen of course, they are small enough to choke on but big enough that you would notice if she was. I think she would be choking on it quite a bit, and if she coughed up pretzel, the burger would have come out too. Seems like it wouldn't go down easily and would lodge in her throat. Just my thinking.

But I agree with getting her checked out just in case. I would want to be sure, otherwise I would be worrying my head off until it passed, and maybe for nothing because she may not have had it in her mouth to begin with.

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My own dd swallowed a piece to the toy story kerplunk game. It was presidents day and all the daycare kids parents were teachers and we didn't have any DCK's here (thank goodness). She was playing with my husband (just a few months shy of 3 years of age). We were asking her to help clean up when she put one of the aliens in her mouth intending to 'pop' it out at Dad...when it went down her throat. I NEVER freaked out so much in my life. I bent her over and hit her back, she was breathing, but not very well and there was saliva and blood coming up with traces of vomit. We called 911 and took an ambulance ride to the hospital where she had it surgically removed. Fun story to tell now that it's all behind us, she had an alien removed from her! A very expensive $11,000 alien, LOL.

After that it was a HUGE reminder that all things with tiny pieces do not belong ANYWHERE where littles are. However, there are accidents and all our training comes into play. If ever in doubt, it's better to be safe than sorry. I would request the child be looked at by a Dr. Just to be on the safe side. Would be helpful if you new for sure the cheeseburger was ingested. Yikes!

Good Luck!

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OP - Sounds like you did everything right. One thing about in-home daycare with mixed ages is that it is not really possible to have a quality, fun, fully encompassing program for the 4 and 5 yos without some small stuff.

I have some. It is extremely well monitored so that no one under 4 gets ahold of it. So, imagine my horror one day when DCM picks up and one of my 5yo boys starts bawling to his mama because he "ate a snowman button." Auck! What?!?! Apparently, while playing at quiet time with a magnet set where you dress the snowman, he thought he'd eat one of the buttons (about the size of a pencil eraser). He didn't say anything to anyone about it, or act weird, so I had no idea, and felt really bad about that.

We haven't had anything out with small parts since then, and I don't know if I ever will again. Maybe my next group of pre-k will be more like others I've had in the past...

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This exact situation happened to my family last night. I decided to see if anyone else had this situation and found this post today.

Last night my son was playing pop the pig. He’s 3 and a half. He had his back turned towards me. I should say he’s over the age of putting stuff in his mouth, or so we thought. But I guess watching the “pig” eat those burgers, he thought he could to?

He turned around coughing. Not a “normal” cough, but like he was trying to clear his throat. He could talk but I could tell something wasn’t right. He kept coughing and I asked him if he ate the dice (which is the last piece I saw him with). He insisted he didn’t and I was able to locate it. It then dawned on me that he must of eaten a burger. My heart sank, those burgers aren’t “small”. They are like an inch in diameter.

As he continued coughing and drool was starting to run down his chin, I asked him if he ate a burger. He denied denied denied. I knew something just wasn’t right and was starting to panic. I told him he wasn’t in trouble, but if he did eat one, he had to tell mommy. He immediately said he did swallow a piece. He said he ate just one.

I stayed as calm as possible and got my keys, purse and an extra burger piece (to show the doctor what exactly was swallowed) and got in the car and off to the ER. We live about 15 minutes from a major trauma hospital that also has a pediatric ER, so I knew it wasn’t a long drive. I kept talking to him on the way, so he would talk, and I would know his airway was still clear. He did stop coughing and drooling by the time we got to the ER.

We got checked in. Explained the situation. They listed to his lungs and belly and gave him a chest x-ray. They said plastic doesn’t usually show up on an X-ray. The piece didn’t show up on the x-Ray. They listed to his belly and lungs again, which both sounded normal. They then had him eat to make sure that his esophagus wasn’t block. About 2.5 hours later we were on our way home.

I didn’t hesitate to get him checked out. The thought of the piece blocking his airway at any moment was more then enough of a reason for me to take him to the ER. Then I thought about if it got stuck some where along his digestive track and causing a blockage. So many things could have gone wrong and the situation could have ended completely differently.

The doctor said the smallest part of the digestive track is in the throat/ top of the chest, so if it passed through there, it won’t have any issues traveling the digestive track.

The nurse said that “usually” when something is blocking the esophagus, there will be lots of drool. Which is a good symptom to know.

I would always recommend getting your kid checked out by a doctor. It’s definitely not worth the risk or just assuming they are okay.

Needless to say we through the game away as soon as we got home.

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