Most of us can admit to breaking a few food rules when it comes to our own daily eating habits, but we can’t afford to take any risks when it comes to our children.
This has been reiterated today by a US father, who had a terrifying experience recently after accidentally feeding his young daughter stale food.
Justin Morrice took to Facebook to warn parents of small children to ‘always read labels on the foods we feed them’.
Recalling the recent ordeal, Justin explained how he had just finished feeding his daughter Annabelle when he decided to give her some cheesy baby snacks for ‘dessert’.
He set them down on her highchair tray and walked away – but got the fright of his life when he turned around again.
“In less than 10 seconds I had turned to rinse her bowl in the sink…turned back and saw her gasping for air. She was trying to cry but no sound was coming out,” he wrote.
Justin reacted to his daughter’s choking immediately, picking her up and turning her over to slap her back in an effort to dislodge the food. At this point, the tot’s lips had turned blue.
When his best efforts didn’t work, Justin began to fear for the worst: “At this moment I thought my little girl was going to die in my arms... I panicked and did the only thing I could think of....I rammed my finger into her mouth and down her throat and was able to squish the cheesie enough that the next thing I heard was the sweetest sound in the world...her crying.”
With her cries, the stuck food became dislodged and Justin was finally able to get the food out of Annabelle’s mouth using his fingers.
Given how the tot had only snacked on the food a few days before, Justin was left understandably confused by what had happened – until his mother made an alarming discovery on the packaging.
“After scanning the can my mom found this ‘warning’ in tiny letters on their side, to throw contents out after 5 days of breaking the seal. I opened a new container and I could not believe the difference. The ones in the can she choked on I can only describe to be like a foam ear plug. I could squish it but it would expand back out and would not break apart. The ones in the new can crumbled with ease,” he wrote.
He went on to warn people against being ‘lazy’ when it comes to checking food labels, especially when it comes to children.
