I posted on twitter a couple of weeks ago that I certainly saw the difference between choking and gagging.
How this came about was totally by mishap and by my oldest daughter being a bit careless.
Normally we make sure that all the small toys aren't on the floor or within grabbing reach of Anya and Mia knows certain toys aren't suitable for a toddler.
However, she had a tube of bubble mixture and in her excitement to play with them she dropped (or probably threw!) the lid on the floor.
We were totally oblivious to this, however Anya wasn't.
I saw Anya sit on the floor and start to gag. But she was silent and started to go red in the face. She wasn't eating anything at the time so I wondered what was happening. I suddenly became aware that she was struggling with something but we had no idea what. Just as I realised she was actually choking she started to vomit. This often happens during a particularly bad case of gagging but is often accompanied by noise.
This time we could see her being sick and a few seconds later out popped the lid of the bubble mixture. To our amazement.
I'm glad I was experienced at watching her gagging otherwise I think I would've rushed and grabbed her without seeing what her body does. That may have made things worse and perhaps she would've swallowed the cap down further, but thankfully it came up itself.
We didn't even see her eating it so I wasn't sure how far down it had gone, but for her to choke like that it was definitely further down than her gag reflex. Luckily out it popped.
Mia couldn't be blamed too much but we had to strongly warn her about the dangers of throwing her toys on the floor. I think seeing Anya choking made her realise how serious it can be.
And how was Anya after the little incident.
Her normal self and looking for something else to eat!
What did I learn from this? To watch first before acting otherwise things could get worse. And when you feel you need to then step in.
