Pre-choking interventions

[arlingtonnurse]

We have a student in grade K, who is known to stuff his mouth to capacity when eating.  Over the weekend his parents that he choked on a piece of steak and they needed to perform the Heimlich on him. Yesterday he vomited in the lunchroom but felt fine at home, so parents and teacher are wondering if he had stuffed a chicken leg too far into his mouth and gagged himself.  Wondering about interventions we can implement to reduce risk.  Planning on moving his chair in the lunchroom so that it is closer to the aides, and I have also done a refresher on choking/Heimlich with the aides in the class.  Teacher feels cutting up food wouldn't be helpful as he tends to stuff it all in his mouth either way (ie the steak was cut by parents but he had a number of pieces in his mouth)

 

[Cattz, ADN]

Is there some type of diagnosis that is the cause?

[UrbanHealthRN, BSN, RN]

Cattz said:

Is there some type of diagnosis that is the cause?

I second Cattz. When I worked in pedi, we'd see toddlers with mouth stuffing as part of normal development, then they'd outgrow it. To have a 5 or 6 year old mouth stuffing makes me think there's some sort of condition or maybe delay going on. 

[FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN]

1:1 aide for mealtime trained on giving him a small amount of food at a time.