Okay, parents of two or more… Tell me. Please. HOW do you keep a baby from killing herself with an older sibling’s toys? Seriously. It seems like everything Thumper cares about these days is a choking hazard–including his books, because this baby LOVES paper. She loves to crinkle it; she loves to tear it; and she especially loves to try to eat it. Everything goes in this kid’s mouth. Every. Damn. Thing. And I watch her. Closely. I swear. And even so, today I fished a dreidel out of her mouth at the very last possible moment. It’s unreal how fast she is with those hands… I gave her a basket of wooden blocks to play with. I should have checked it more carefully, because I didn’t know there was a small dreidel in it. She found it in less than a minute.
Death by dreidel. I’m torturing myself replaying all the horrific ways today could have gone. But I saw her. I fished it out. She’s fine.
But…fuck. You know? Today it was a dreidel. Last week it was a plastic gun from one of Thumper’s Star Wars figures. (A gun I thought I’d confiscated, by the way. Must look into that one a bit deeper.) And the week before that it was a scrap of paper she’d found on the floor. The obvious solution is to make sure there are no choking hazards whatsoever within her reach, but how? I’m asking sincerely. How the hell do you keep choking hazards off the floor at all times when there’s a four and a half year old boy on the premises? A boy whose dearest possessions are coins and polished stones and bottlecaps. A boy who is really, really into Legos right now. A boy who plunks himself down at his art table and happily cuts out snowflakes for a half hour at a time–and drops tantalizing bits of paper everywhere in the process.
Right now the kids’ toys are mostly in the living room, with less-played-with toys upstairs in an uninsulated (so too cold now) playroom. For starters, we’re going to move all of Thumper’s toys with small parts up to his room. Action figures and Playmobil stuff and his “treasure boxes” full of godknowswhat jump immediately to mind, but I’m sure we’ll find more than that as we go through everything. But he’s a social kid, and he doesn’t much like to play alone in his room, so I’m not sure how this will work out.
Help! How did you deal with this?
We’re fairly unsuccessful with keeping choking hazards out of reach. My 1.5 year old son is often found with his 4.5 year old sister’s toys in his mouth. My best advice would be to enlist Thumper in the choking hazard fight. Teach him to get small objects (gently) out of his sister’s mouth or call an adult. You could also teach him to call out if his sister goes an unexpected colour.
Ah, tricky. I used a playpen for the baby. It may look a bit sad, but it’s a very clear demarkation for everyone involved. She doesn’t have to be in there all the time, but if Thumper’s doing something involving small parts it’s an excellent place to be. Both my guys loved the playpen, by the way. Except when they didn’t, of course, but that’s life 🙂
Did you know that a poker chip is a choking hazard? I didn’t, I thought it was too big. It isn’t. We have the same issues, I have no solutions, we just watch the baby closely. Legos are played with on the big bed, baby can’t get there yet, but today I found two tiny pieces on the floor. It’s an ongoing battle.
There’s a movie quote that I can’t quite pin down that has something to do with always being vigilant!
Sorry, I don’t have any practical suggestions to add to what others have already said. In his second year my son swallowed a dime, knocked out two front teeth and shoved a walnut into this sinuses, so I’m not sure you’d want to take my advice anyway! (Although my daughter had no similar mishaps…)
I agree with the enlist help approach. I trained my son who was 2 years older than his brother to identify chocking hazards (put them through a toilet paper tube, if they fit, they are one) and then get them out of his reach. We had a basket or two around and he had his own toilet paper tube. He’d look for things and test them (or not if they were obviously small) and yell (loudly) choking hazard!!! and then put them in the basket. He’d also tear them out of his brother’s hand making him cry, but that’s better than choking right? It left me with baskets of random small things to put away (or throw away) all the time. But it worked great. He was soundly praised for his vigilance.
I agree with the idea of enlisting help and also with occasional use of a pack and play for confining baby. We have much the same issue here, what with big brother being 8 when younger sis was born. I know that a few legos have been inadvertently swallowed, but now little sis is getting older and it’s getting easier. So, remember it’s only temporary. Having Thumper be aware and alert for this issue is helpful. I can’t tell you how many times J has fished something out of S’s mouth for me. Good luck!
When my littler nephew outgrew the Pack and Play, my brother constructed a play area out of safety gates. He put interlocking rubber mats on the floor so it was comfortable for sitting and walking. It was strong enough that as my nephew was pulling himself up and then walking, he couldn’t pull it down. Also, he had full view of everyone, and although he didn’t always like being in his play area, he was safe from his older brother’s Legos and other small toys. Good luck!
We did the baby gate thing too, but in another direction: I was able to gate off the dining room area (which was still pretty open to the kitchen/den– just needed extra wide gates, available at the pet store) and older kid would play with non-baby-friendly items in dining room. She was still able to see and talk to us but younger child could not reach the dangerous stuff.
I have 3 daughters, the youngest 16 months. And she has to be the kid that puts everything in her mouth. The other 2 did not seem to care that much. But she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth.
I watch her. Honestly, I don’t worry that much about it. Sometimes I will find her with something in her mouth and it’s like, “Gee, I wonder how long that has been in there.”
Keep in mind that choking happens all the time BUT the human body also has mechanisms in place to defend against it, like gagging. So just because she gets something in her mouth does not mean she’s going to choke on it. She may just chew on it for a while and then spit it out on her own.
I’m not saying this so that you will be less vigilant, just to maybe? bring your anxiety level down just a little bit.
I agree enlisting help is huge. Put the fear of god in my then 4 year old about helping watch for choking hazards and it made a huge difference. I never found much success in sequestering choking hazard toys, for the very reason you don’t think it will work. The closest I could get was making “nap time” toys. When youngest was sleeping, Legos could emerge from the closet. Good luck.
Wow! I was going to post something, but after reading all the comments, I don’t have anything to add – great advice, all! I have 3 girls all past choking age (barely) and the youngest is the only one we had an issue with (go figure – I think vigilance is inversely proportional to number of children in the house). Just to add to your fear (because it’s fun to do!) the issue we had was not with choking, but with putting a small object, Polly Pocket shoe in this case, up her nose. Yes, you have more than one orifice to worry about! BTW, all is fine, except for the Polly Pocket shoe, of course!
Same issue at my house – the baby roams free & shoves everything into his mouth. I just keep drilling it into my daughter’s head that her brother doesn’t know any better & that he could die if he gets the wrong thing in there. She’s probably going to need some therapy. My major fear is stairs. We have some truly treacherous stairs. Oy.
Wow. Glad you have a bunch of savvy readers. Glad I don’t have kids. Glad you found the dreidel. I’ve been spending a fair amount of time w/ my honorary nephew who has the same love of shoving everything in his mouth, and I’ve been watching his parents get nervous as he begins to crawl around. I think I’ll pass some of these ideas on.
This probably isn’t going to help much, but our younger was wicked oral, and she got so attached to a pacifier that nothing else went in the mouth.
One thing to add. Help is important. Part of help in our house is that the choking hazards get played with on the kitchen table so that we only have to worry about things that fall on the ground. We also use baby nap time as special play with the choking hazard time. Most of the time, other toys are used when both kids are together and on the floor. That said, my eldest’s favorite game is dress up, which makes this a lot easier. Also, as you know, the put everything in the mouth phase is relatively short so you only need to be really lucky/vigilant for 6 months or so….
Playpen…the old fashion kind, or the one that looks like a criss cross fence, and either child can e be in the middle of the latter one.
My ten-year-old STILL puts everything in his mouth, especially when he’s reading, which is pretty much all the time. All of his books have chewed-up bookmarks and chewed-up corners. He’s like a bunny rabbit or a little puppy dog; he just needs to chew… Hopefully your child’s oral phase will be more short-lived.
In the meantime, could you use child gates to create a space for Thumper to use his favorite choking hazard toys that is right in the middle of the living room? You can call it his Kingdom and make it a special privilege rather than solitary confinement in his bedroom with the Legos.
Your own watchful eyes are your best defense, though — in some ways, a “baby-proofed” home is even more dangerous because it gives parents a false sense of security. No matter how careful you are, no matter how many gates and cabinet locks and outlet covers you have in place, there are always accidents waiting to happen when you’re looking the other way.
There are 4 in my house now, and while my 2 are non-oral, the Dude’s 2 (who will 3 in March & 7 in July) stick everything in their mouths. I’ve given up trying to childproof and just remind them when I find…legos-broken crayons-paper-fuzz-plastic tags from clothes..that we eat food. The older of my de facto stepkids has major food issues and I’ve told him that he’s put enough things in his mouth that aren’t food that I’m no longer entertaining his notions of “not liking” foods that he has never tried before. I tell them to spit it out & remove them from the activity. As long as you’re there with her to take it out of her mouth, she’s not going to die.