5 Foods That Kids Most Often Choke On

When kids clamor for something sweet, a hard peppermint or butterscotch candy may seem like one of your better choices. It satisfies the sweet tooth, has no fat, and occupies a youngster for a while, all of which should make for a healthier child and a happier caregiver.

Unfortunately, the candy's hard texture is difficult for young teeth to chomp and chew. The slick surface and rounded shape can send the candy down the throat before the child realizes it.

Also, children aren't known for self-control. Sucking and savoring a piece of candy isn't nearly as gratifying as gobbling it down. As a result, hard candies are off limits for children aged 4 years and under.

A similar problem follows from the conventional wisdom of cutting raw apples, pears, carrots, and other hard fruits and vegetables into bite-sized pieces. "Bite-size" for an infant is 1/4-inch or smaller (about the size of a pea), 1/2-inch or smaller for toddlers. A safer option may be serious deconstruction: grate, shred or purée the food, or cook it until it's soft.

Next: little green bullets and more.

After a supermarket expedition or during a long road trip, a bunch of grapes might seem like the perfect distraction for a tired child fussing in the car seat. Eating in a moving vehicle, with a driver who's herself distracted, is already a choking hazard. Adding something like grapes to the mix increases the risk.

Foods like grapes, olives, cherry tomatoes and raw peas are softer than candy disks. Yet, they're still too firm for the chomp-and-swallow technique young children employ. Like hard candy, they have a slippery feel and small size that might fool a child into thinking the food can be swallowed whole. Some children even try to, just to see if they can. In reality, they're the right size for lodging in the throat.

These foods can be made safe. As with bigger fruits and vegetables, cut grapes and other small fruits into halves or quarters. Cook and mash peas. Or let the child smash them: Kids take more interest in foods they help "prepare" themselves.

Our next entry asks the question: Can an all-American sandwich favorite be a health hazard to the schoolkids who made it famous? In a word, yes. And that's not "spreading it on thick." Read on to see what we mean.

If you check your neighbor's kitchen, chances are good (about 3-to-1) that you'll find a jar of peanut butter. If your neighbor has a child, he or she will have downed an average of 1,500 peanut butter sandwiches before graduating high school, most of them without incident.

Most of them. Peanut butter has a track record of causing choking in children, especially when paired with the traditional spongy, sliced white bread. Mouthfuls can form globs that clog the throat. The same is true of other soft, sticky foods, such as cheese cubes and slices, fruit "leathers," and chewy candies like caramels, jelly beans and "gummies."

To reduce the risk, serve peanut butter thinly smeared between slices of bread, never by the spoonful, and cut the sandwich into 1/4-inch or 1/2-inch pieces. Slice and dice cheese in a similar fashion. Avoid sticky or chewy candy (and chewing gum) altogether until a child is at least 5 years old.

Next: When "buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack" is a bad idea.

Nutritionally, popcorn is a healthful alternative to potato chips, cookies and other fried or sugary snacks. But for children younger than 5, and sometimes older, it can be just as harmful.

The problem is popcorn's fluffy consistency and irregular shape. The puffed-up pieces are easily inhaled without chewing, and the rounded and pointed surfaces can wedge in the throat. Heavier, odd-shaped foods pose the same danger, including many snack crackers, animal crackers, pretzels, peanuts, walnuts and raisins.

These foods present another, treacherous hazard. Small flakes and even whole pieces as big as corn kernels can travel through the airway and settle in the lungs. There, they can trigger pneumonia and other respiratory infections.

For safety's sake, keep young children away from these foods in their original form. Some can be rendered harmless by soaking thoroughly. Soften animal crackers in milk, for example, or raisins in fruit juice.

Finally, what food could be so deadly that one leading pediatrician likened it to "a perfect plug for a child's airway"? Read our last entry to find out.

As a choking hazard, hot dogs are the single most dangerous food in the average American child's diet, responsible for one of every six asphyxiation deaths in children age 10 and younger, according to Businessweek. Hot dogs have three strikes against them: their shape (cylindrical), size (a little less than 1 inch in diameter), and texture (smooth on the outside, compressible inside). In a 2010 policy statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics singled out hot dogs as an example of a food that should be redesigned or carry warning labels due to the high risk of choking. The group might have included sausage links, string cheese and marshmallows, all of which share the treacherous traits.

Meanwhile, caregivers can do their own redesign: Cut hot dogs and other tube-shaped food lengthwise into quarters, then crosswise to make strips. Cut marshmallows down to size likewise, using the 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch guideline.

The bottom line is: As long as kids will be kids, adults must be adults, so be vigilant about the safety and well-being of the young ones in their care.