19/12/2025
🎄 CHOKING FIRST AID FOR CHILDREN (1 year+) – CHRISTMAS EDITION 🎄
Quality Street, grapes, nuts, sausages on sticks… Christmas is a brilliant time, but it’s also a high-risk choking period for children.
👉 If your child is gagging, coughing, spluttering, or red in the face
That’s OK. Let them cough.
Coughing is the body doing its job. Don’t interfere.
🚨 If they go silent and blue
That’s a fully blocked airway.
It’s over to you.
What to do (children over 1 year old):
🔹 Get down to their level or support them safely
(3, 4, 5 years old – meet them where they are)
🔹 Lean them forward at about 45°
🔹 Give 5 firm back blows
• Between the shoulder blades
• Check after each one to see if the object comes out
📞 Call 999
• Get someone else to call if possible
• If you’re alone, put it on speaker
• Help is on the way, but you must act now
🔹 If the object doesn’t come out:
➡️ 5 abdominal thrusts
• Hand just above the belly button
• Make a fist, grasp it with the other hand
• Thrust inwards and upwards in a J-shaped motion
🔁 Continue 5 back blows and 5 abdominal thrusts
Until:
✔️ The object is removed
✔️ Or the ambulance arrives
⚠️ If they become unresponsive and stop breathing
➡️ Move to CPR protocols
🎄 Hopefully, the 5 and 5 works quickly — and in most cases, it does.
Merry Christmas and please take 2 minutes to watch and share — it could genuinely save a life.
✏️ Quick edit:
When I said “if they’ve eaten a sweet”, I meant swallowed — if it’s in the stomach it’s not choking; choking is when it’s stuck in the airway.
—
Hartley First Aid Training
Calm. Practical. Life-saving skills for real life.
