About a second after the nurse places your new bundle of joy in your arms, you realize just how fragile this new person is. The good news is that your new baby won’t be getting into any trouble for a couple of months yet. The bad news is that your worry-free days will be over the very same moment (if they aren’t already). Within just a few months, this sweet, toothless, completely dependent creature will begin to learn about the world by putting anything and everything into his or her mouth.
At first, baby will probably only insert foot into mouth. And the pictures will be adorable, the jokes hilarious. But soon you will notice baby reaches out for everything, trying to give it a taste. After all, that is all baby knows at this age: what I like, what I find interesting, goes into my mouth. That’s how they show affection.
Unfortunately, what baby finds interesting is what baby sees. And when those fine motor skills become fine tuned, nothing is too small, or too dangerous, for baby to fit into his or her pincer grip. I once saw a drawing of a human respiratory system framed in my ENT’s office. Along different points in the respiratory track were items retrieved from actual patients. Coins (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, international versions too), food items (beans, peas, popcorn kernels, seeds galore), household items (pen caps, push pins, screws, pieces of electronic devices), you name it, it was there. Famous chokables in three generations of my family: cashews, polished rocks, peppermint candies. Even those little fuzzy pompoms you buy for art projects. Of course, that was up the nose, which is a completely different blog entry.
My point? when you set your baby down, clear the area. Make sure he or she cannot get anything loose. Check his toys. Check her clothes. Check, check, check. And then watch, watch, watch. It only takes a split second for your child’s airway to become blocked.
