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Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from high-ri

MyOwnDrum

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OK, another grieving parent is on a crusade, this time to redesign the hotdog and make American 100% safe from choking.

I'm sorry for this lady's terrible loss, but all these safety rules are getting to be absurd. One kid dies of a freak accident and everyone else has to put up with some stupid new law. The politicians who write them can then claim that they are protecting the public safety and care about kids. The public gets saddled with new restrictions and a new federal oversight agency is created, along with more redtape to make life more irritating for the citizens.

Doctors Urging for a Safer, Choke-Free Hot Dog - Nutrition | Physical - FOXNews.com

CHICAGO — When 4-year-old Eric Stavros Adler choked to death on a piece of hot dog, his anguished mother never dreamed that the popular kids' food could be so dangerous.

Some food makers including Oscar Mayer have warning labels about choking, but not nearly enough, says Joan Stavros Adler, Eric's mom.

The American Academy of Pediatrics agrees. The nation's largest pediatricians group is calling for sweeping changes in the way food is designed and labeled to minimize children's chances for choking.

Choking kills more than 100 U.S. children 14 years or younger each year and thousands more — 15,000 in 2001 — are treated in emergency rooms. Food, including candy and gum, is among the leading culprits, along with items like coins and balloons. Of the 141 choking deaths in kids in 2006, 61 were food-related.

Surveillance systems lack detailed information about food choking incidents, which are thought to be underreported but remain a significant and under-appreciated problem, said Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Smith is lead author of a new policy report from the pediatrics academy that seeks to make choking prevention a priority for government and food makers. The report was released Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

100 kids? That's it? It's not like it's some epidemic then eh? Sounds like the vast majority of kids can learn to chew.
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

I don't know what happened to my title, could a moderator correct that?
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

The title should be "Doctors Urging for a Safer, Choke-Free Hot Dog" I had changed it I thought. Can someone fix it?
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

They recommend "pea sized" hot dog pieces? O-kay ...

I would be very interested to know what size hot dog the kid choked on, and how closely he was being supervised at the time. I cut up the hot dogs I give my preschooler up into ~1/2" sections and that seems to be about right. Of course, just like anything else, the size probably depends upon the kid.
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

Can we just liquefy all food? That should take care of any danger of choking.... oh wait, we might inhale it instead.

I think we should just ban all food and be done with it.
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

Are they next going to call for water that can't drown you?
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

OK, another grieving parent is on a crusade, this time to redesign the hotdog and make American 100% safe from choking.

I'm sorry for this lady's terrible loss, but all these safety rules are getting to be absurd. One kid dies of a freak accident and everyone else has to put up with some stupid new law. The politicians who write them can then claim that they are protecting the public safety and care about kids. The public gets saddled with new restrictions and a new federal oversight agency is created, along with more redtape to make life more irritating for the citizens.

Doctors Urging for a Safer, Choke-Free Hot Dog - Nutrition | Physical - FOXNews.com
CHICAGO — When 4-year-old Eric Stavros Adler choked to death on a piece of hot dog, his anguished mother never dreamed that the popular kids' food could be so dangerous. Cause she's an idiot. Any food can be dangerous. Duh.

Some food makers including Oscar Mayer have warning labels about choking, but not nearly enough, says Joan Stavros Adler, Eric's mom. So, to prevent people seeing my idiocy, and to prevent myself from realizing that through such, my kid died, I want to make the price of every single hotdog go up by a fraction of a cent or so, by forcing hotdog makers to label such with "can be choking hazard".

The American Academy of Pediatrics agrees. The nation's largest pediatricians group is calling for sweeping changes in the way food is designed and labeled to minimize children's chances for choking. Of course they do. You can always find someone to agree with you. And think of the potential for them to gain power, by being the regulators of such a law.

Choking kills more than 100 U.S. children 14 years or younger each year and thousands more — 15,000 in 2001 — are treated in emergency rooms. Food, including candy and gum, is among the leading culprits, along with items like coins and balloons. Of the 141 choking deaths in kids in 2006, 61 were food-related. And I would bet you much that this incidence level is the same or less (or only very slightly more) than in any given past year. As if suddenly this looming new threat of choking on food has shown up... :doh

Surveillance systems lack detailed information about food choking incidents, which are thought to be underreported but remain a significant and under-appreciated problem, said Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. "We have no evidence of this, but we are sure it happens."

Smith is lead author of a new policy report from the pediatrics academy that seeks to make choking prevention a priority for government and food makers. The report was released Monday in the journal Pediatrics. Oh great. "Make choking prevention a priority". As if no other issues, like quality (you know, to prevent food poisoning?), could be more important. :roll:

*10 characters*
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

This just in people, a new threat to your children.

When a child falls from a great height, it is likely that they will die or be seriously injured.

I propose that we ban tall things.
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

I didn't notice anything about the root cause of choking by people in general let alone children.

The cause id failure to properly shew your food and old saying most people over look is don't bite off more than you can chew.

Parents would do well to teach children how to eat.
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

Are they next going to call for water that can't drown you?
Well, water vapor is a greenhouse gas, so...They can't vaporise all water to prevent drowning.
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

I cut up the hot dogs I give my preschooler up into ~1/2" sections and that seems to be about right. Of course, just like anything else, the size probably depends upon the kid.
That is actually what most pediatricians recommend you do to serve hotdogs to a small child.

Really I hate to be the one to throw stones in such a jerk manner but isn't the Heimlich maneuver basically common knowledge at this point? I mean it really isnt that complicated a maneuver.

I dont know the circumstances of the child's death but it would seem to me that a mother who prepared food properly for a child and knew something as basic as how to clear an airway would go a long way towards reducing problems.
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

I'm sorry for the loss of the little boy's life, but his mother had a responsibility to make sure that the boy was eating his food properly. All of the food labeling in the world doesn't diminish a parent's responsibilities.

For what it's worth, my viewpoint is that of a parent of a young boy.
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

100 kids is nothing. This shouldn't spur a policy change. Most choking can be averted by teaching your kids to chew properly before swallowing; secondary to that, at most schools and places where kids frequent, there is usually someone trained in the hymlec.

Those 100 kids sound terribly unlucky.
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

There's only one way to stop children from choking on solid food.

Congress will have to ban the consumption of solid food by children under 18 years of age.

The blender and plastic straw industries will EXPLODE!
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

"Something as simple as making lollipops flat like a silver dollar instead of round like a ping pong ball can make a big difference, said Bruce Silverglade, legal affairs director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which also has lobbied for more attention to choking prevention."

So, naturally, the lawyers can make a fortune suing for the parents of kids who've had their cheeks sliced by the sharp edges of carefully licked suckers, as I saw a kid do one time. I was ten, that was pretty damn funny at the time. Cut the corner of his mouth when he pulled it out. Bled pretty good, too.
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

Well, water vapor is a greenhouse gas, so...They can't vaporise all water to prevent drowning.

Yes, it can be done. We need a rock about six hundred miles in diameter...
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

That is actually what most pediatricians recommend you do to serve hotdogs to a small child.

Really I hate to be the one to throw stones in such a jerk manner but isn't the Heimlich maneuver basically common knowledge at this point? I mean it really isnt that complicated a maneuver.

I dont know the circumstances of the child's death but it would seem to me that a mother who prepared food properly for a child and knew something as basic as how to clear an airway would go a long way towards reducing problems.

What? You're expecting adults to be educated and responsible? Why, if they did that, there wouldn't be as much need for lawyers.
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

I didn't realize until recently that [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_Surprise"]Kinder Eggs[/ame] (Kinder eggs) are prohibited in the US, because it's a small toy inside a food item. I figured they would just put some kind of additional warning label.
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

Yes, it can be done. We need a rock about six hundred miles in diameter...
But there are highly unacceptable side-effects to such a method, first among them being the death of a large portion of people living on the earth, and second being the death of a large portion of the other forms of life on the earth.

Then there is the problems stemming from lack of water....

Edit: Not to mention, water vapor is a greenhouse gas, and even if we survived all the other side effects, that much water vapor would cause us to die from heat................
 
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Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

I think we should require a warning label on children "Warning - may choke on food" and leave my hot dogs alone!
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

I didn't realize until recently that Kinder Eggs (Kinder eggs) are prohibited in the US, because it's a small toy inside a food item. I figured they would just put some kind of additional warning label.

wow, i didn't know that either, must suck to be american
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

wow, i didn't know that either, must suck to be american

I cannot speak for other Americans, but now that my naivete has been shattered, and I now know I have been deprived of Kinder eggs all this time it may take me a bit to assimilate to this.

I will never be able to put the pieces of the illusion that now lies shattered at my feet back together again. Hopefully I can find the strength to carry on boldly into this newly tarnished reality.

Thanks for ruining it for me.. I am sure it is for the best that this illusion is now dispelled though.
 
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Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

wow, i didn't know that either, must suck to be american
We have very one-sided food laws.

On the one hand we cant have chocolate eggs with toys in them, yet on the other we can have TONS of HFC in everything we eat (Yes I know HFC isnt bad in and of itself, however it permeates our entire food system and is difficult to exclude from a diet).
 
Re: Choking warning urged for food labels Pediatricians seek to protect kids from hig

We have very one-sided food laws.

On the one hand we cant have chocolate eggs with toys in them, yet on the other we can have TONS of HFC in everything we eat (Yes I know HFC isnt bad in and of itself, however it permeates our entire food system and is difficult to exclude from a diet).
And compared to sugar it tastes like ****.
 
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