How Can Hotdogs Be Serious Choking Hazards for Children Below Four

Hotdogs Choking hazard Dr. Tanya Altmann Richard So Nisha Kapadia Centers for Disease Control Food choking hazards

By Camille Hutchison , Parent Herald Sep 15, 01:20 am

Summer is peak hotdog season, with 2019 data stating that 150 million hotdogs are consumed on the fourth of July alone, according to USA Today.

However, Dr. Tanya Altmann, author of "Baby & Toddler Basics," said the size, texture, and shape of hotdogs make them especially dangerous for young children, and it's a good reminder that they can be serious choking hazards.

Any food that is "large, round, and solid" can be a potential choking hazard. Hotdogs commonly rank at the top of lists of foods to avoid giving young children. The American Academy of Pediatrics emphasizes that hotdogs should be kept away from children below four years old.

Dr. Altmann said that other potentially dangerous food entails whole grapes, hard or sticky candy, chunks of meat or cheese, and popcorn. On the other hand, hotdogs are usually long and round, and when kids "bite off a piece of it, it looks like a thick quarter, and that is the perfect size to get lodged into a child's throat," she added.

Children consuming hotdogs can eventually develop Leukemia

In one of the articles published in the Los Angeles Times, an epidemiologist from the University of Southern California revealed that young children who eat more than 12 hotdogs a month are more likely to develop leukemia. This is due to the use of nitrites to preserve processed meat such as hotdogs. The nitrites are converted in the body to highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.

The epidemiologist also determined that children whose parents ate a diet that included hotdogs before they were born and those mothers who ate hotdogs during pregnancy were at higher risk of developing brain tumors.

Hotdogs are one of the popular types of food worldwide, specifically in the United States. Dr. Richard So said parents need to be aware that if a child chokes on a hotdog, they are much more likely to be hospitalized. Choking on a hotdog is dangerous, although it is not as common as hard candies.

According to research, hotdogs appear to be the top cause of food-related choking in children under three, with 17 percent of cases caused by hotdog inhalation, followed by hard candy at 10 percent, grapes at 9 percent, and nuts at 8 percent, per Hopkins Medicine.

Johns Hopkins Children's pediatrician, Dr. Nisha Kapadia, said during a recent presentation at the hospital that every food poses a choking risk, especially in young kids, but the hotdog contains the right size that will surely block the airway and can be severe if not immediately treated.

Reducing toddler's risk of choking on food

Infants and toddlers are specifically prone to food-choking considering that they don't have a complete set of teeth to chew and grind the food before eventually swallowing. Although toddlers ages three and four have molars, they are still learning how to chew. One high level of activity that puts them at risk of inhaling food is while either playing or running around.

The 2001 analysis released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that 60 percent of the 1,757 non-fatal choking incidents in U.S. emergency rooms in children under 14 were caused by food, while 77 percent of choking episodes occur in children under the age of three.

Cleveland Clinic suggests cutting kids' food into small pieces so they can't get stuck in the child's throat and giving them a few pieces at a time.