How To Prevent Choking When On a Road Trip

When young children are eating, especially while traveling in cars, we have to pay strong attention to the foods that can pose a choking hazard for toddlers. Whether they are traveling in a replacement toddler car seat cover or universal toddler car seat covers, you should know how to prevent toddlers from choking at meals and snacks. 

 

 

How To Prevent Toddler Choking

Many times when parents do baby-led weaning, you can get comfortable letting your children try out new foods. However, when your child is sitting in their toddler car seat covers you might notice that some food textures are tricky for little kids to handle. For instance, you may have had an awful experience of having your child choke on a tortilla chip because they didn’t chew it well. Perhaps, they didn’t choke on it per se, but they might have been uncomfortable or terrified, and that triggers red flags and worries.  

The Types Of Foods That Can Be Choking Hazards For Toddlers

Here is a breakdown of the most common foods that could pose a risk for little kids, but can usually be offered in safer ways. These are the ones you should pay close attention to for children under the age of four, however, keep in mind the chewing abilities and disposition of your own child when serving any other foods. 

For instance, if your toddler usually stuffs a lot of food into their mouths, think about much smaller amounts of food at a time, especially when they are in the car, to help them learn to pace themselves. 

Whole Nuts

Peanuts, almonds and cashews can be more are difficult to chew, and children are prone to swallowing them whole. Avoid them and go for safer versions such as a nut or seed butter spread on lightly toasted bread or mix them into a smoothie or oatmeal. 

Hot Dogs

Because hotdogs are dense and circular they could possibly get stuck in your child’s throat when sliced in rounds. Make sure to chop the hotdog into smaller pieces. For instance, cut each round slice in half and maybe even half again. 

Whole Grapes

Whole grapes are another round food that has a high risk of getting stuck in a toddler’s throat, so slice them vertically in half or quarters (do quarters for very large ones) so that the pieces are long and skinny and easy to chew.

Crunchy Snack Foods

Here you are going to have to use your intuition and knowledge, but for toddlers under two, there are usually some issues chewing foods that can have hard edges such as pretzels, tortilla chips and some crackers. Go for softer versions of these whenever possible and when in doubt. As a matter of fact, chew one yourself first. You should keep your toddler away from tortilla chips until the age of four since this type of food is notorious for getting stuck in toddlers' throats because of all the edges and texture.

Sticky And Hard Foods 



For toddlers, gummy candy, gummy vitamins, taffy, gum, and anything similar are about the worst thing you can give them for dental health.  Dentists frequently cite gummies as the worst thing for cavities.  But for choking hazards, keep your toddler away from hard candies that toddlers often try to swallow whole. 

Also, you should avoid giving young toddlers and babies straight spoonfuls of nut butter since it can sometimes be a challenge for toddlers to move around in their mouths.  Same goes for yams, potatoes and other starchy, dense foods that – when swallowed in large quantities, can be hard for your mouth and throat to navigate.

However, you can always thin it out with a little bit of water if your toddler likes starchy vegetables or nut butter, from a spoon. 

Raw Vegetables

Veggies such as celery sticks, carrots, cucumber slices, apple slices, ad other raw and harder produce can be very tricky for little children to chew. You can always shred them. For example, try to give your kids shredded carrots when they are about 18 months or two years. Also, choose softer varieties of apples such as Gala and slice them really thin, or just go with steamed or lightly cooked versions of these foods to be safe. 

When you peel cucumbers, it can help as well. Prepare them in long sticks for younger toddlers to chew on and small cubes for older toddlers. 

Nuggets Of Meat

When young kids are given cubes or thin slices of steak, cubes of grilled chicken or turkey, it can be very difficult for them to chew. Try to shred or ground cooked meat or give them pieces of meatballs which are softer. 

Nuggets Of Cheese

Kids love cheese so go for shredded cheese.  Anything that doesn’t go in their mouths will be collected by the NIKO Easy Wash Children’s Car Seat Cover. You can also go for crumbled cheese or very small cubes around the size of a pea rather than give an entire cheese stick to a one-year-old. 

Bread

Slices of soft bread are easy to get stuck on the roof of toddlers’ mouths. Prepare lightly toasted bread in very small pieces. Also, try to cut foods such as muffins and pancakes into small pieces and provide a drink with these foods. 

While traveling around with your hungry tot in the car, you can stay rest assured they are munching away till their stomachs are content in safety. At the NIKO Easy Wash Children’s Car Seat Cover, we are always thinking about keeping your children safe and comfortable.