Choking is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children, with food, coins and toys as the most common causes.
The AAP policy statement, Prevention of Choking Among Children (
Understanding the factors that increase the risk for choking will allow pediatric health care providers to raise caretakers’ awareness and decrease the incidence of choking.
In the United States, mechanical airway obstruction from choking, suffocation and strangulation is the leading cause of unintentional injury that results in death of children younger than 1 year of age. It ranks fourth as a cause of death in children 1 to 9 years of age, surpassed only by motor vehicle injuries, drowning/submersion and fire/burns.
In 2000, 160 children ages 14 years or younger died from an obstruction of the respiratory...
