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Hot dogs are the most common culprit when kids choke on foods, USA Today reports, citing a new policy statement on children and choking issued today by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
In the policy statement, which was published today online in Pediatrics , the academy says it wants foods like hot dogs to have warning labels or be "redesigned" so that they are less likely to be lodged in the airways of children. Choking on food brings more than 10,000 kids age 14 and under to emergency rooms each year, and approximately 66 to 77 children under 10 die from choking on food every year, the policy statement says. Hot dogs are behind about 17 percent of these food-related asphyxiations, the paper reports.
"The hot dog is the leading type of food that causes death due to choking on food, and the reason is because the hot dog is round, it's roughly the diameter of the back of a child's throat and so it will slide down behind the tongue and will completely block the airway making it impossible for any air to pass," Dr. Gary Smith told Slashfood. "If you wanted to design to the perfect plug for a child's airway, you couldn't do better than a hot dog."
Smith is the lead author of the policy statement, former chairperson of the academy's Committee on Injury, Violence and Poison Prevention and director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
Hot dogs are a favorite food of the high-risk age group -- kids under 14 -- and while some manufacturers have put warning labels on hot dog packaging, not all have done so and sometimes the message isn't conspicuous, Smith told Slashfood.
The solution, Smith said, is to build a safer hot dog.
"When you're working with a public health problem it's better to design the problem out of existence than to tell people to be careful about it," he said.
Manufacturers, he said, have pushed back against the AAP's calls for hot dog reform. But Smith said they should view it as an opportunity to fill a gap in the market and take advantage of the attention parents pay to safety when making choices for their children.
"This society has re-invented itself so may times in the last couple of decades -- changing the shape and size of a hot dog pales in comparison to all the other change we've witnessed," Smith told Slashfood. "Everyone should just work together and think of ways we can get to the bottom line, which is how can we provide a safer marketplace for food."
Other foods that are common choking hazards to children include: nuts and seeds, whole grapes, sticky candy, popcorn, chewing gum and marshmallows.
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2-22-2010 @3:53PM mike.d.moon said... Perhaps we should all just drink vegan soy-based slurries...wait...children could drown in a slurry...and what about people with soy allergies? Maybe we should let the machines win and devolop Matrix-like incubators for us to live in, safe from the world at large. Or we have scientists work on redesigning our throats. NO ONE MUST DIE!
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2-22-2010 @4:12PM oregoncoastgirl said... Wait- redesigned how? Into pellets? Patties?
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2-22-2010 @4:34PM christopher said... I'm not quite as upset as mike.d.moon, however, as a childless hot dog lover I'd hate to see a wide scale redesign. I don't mind if they make a new child safe "hotpuppy" or "kiddie dogs" (i'm sure marketers can find a better term) and still turn out the adult friendly version. Like shrimp and honey worried parents could just not feed their kids hot dogs instead. Perhaps the perfect choking hazard is just something they shouldn't have.
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2-22-2010 @5:02PM mamaC said... Hmm... Is it possible that not being able to chew one's food is a genetic trait that evolution is trying to remove?
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2-22-2010 @5:44PM Daniel F. said... I'm going to start citing campaigns like this as the transition to an "Idiocracy Society."
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2-23-2010 @2:17PM Gordfordbiditworlks said... Yeah! It would be really terrible if food was put in a form factor that could save lives. Instead we should have hot dogs individually measured to fill the chokehole.
2-22-2010 @5:48PM LinC said... While I don't fault the American Academy of Pediatrics on their desire to protect their small customers, I do think common sense should prevail. This isn't a new problem. It's been around forever. Hot dogs and sausages have been in this shape since at least the Middle Ages (and probably a lot earlier).
What's required is education of the parent, not a wholesale redesign of the product.
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2-23-2010 @12:57AM Simon said... Just cut them lengthways
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2-23-2010 @2:29AM Steve said... How about just teaching kids to chew their food, instead of choking it down like some kind of misbegotten duck/wolf hybrid that hasn't had anything to eat in days? Oh wait, that would mean parents would have to take time out of their Important Schedule to actually be parents.
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2-23-2010 @3:24AM Nate Whilk said... population of USA, under 14 is roughly 61,000,000. 17% of 77 = 13 kids in the USA die from choking on hot dogs. That's a little over 1 in 5 million! Lightning deaths in 2000, ages 0-19: 11. They're far more likely to die in a car crash.
For a supposedly "perfect" choking hazard, hot dogs are a spectacular failure.
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2-23-2010 @6:36AM Bubby said... If this is an issue, then maybe the hot dogs should just be labeled as presenting a choking hazard to kids. If you have a child that is inclined to inhale their food you can make the judgment call to forgo hot dogs. Something tells me that it's going to be hard to market pear shaped hot dogs.
Another option, feed your child larger diameter sausages that will not slip into their throats. Make that little monkey eat a Brat for a change.
Either way, changing the food in ineffective. Whats next? Are you going to try to make child safe puffer fish? How about child safe corn nuts? One in 6000000 Teenagers choke on a roach. We need teenager safe blunts. The blunt must be redesigned.
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2-23-2010 @9:18AM MattDing said... I think we need to get this redesign done, ASAP.
For the children.
If we save one precious darling from the rigors of chewing it will all have been worth it.
Then, once the scourge of hot dogs has been banished from the land we need to get a hold of the makers of grapes and popcorn and get those redesigned as well.
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2-23-2010 @10:20AM gobo said... What about children who pour water into their mouths and then idiotically lie on the floor, not breathing, drowning? Water should be redesigned to prevent potential drowning hazards. Only dry water for our precious children!
And hot sauce... a child could drink it and cause burning sensations. Ban all hot sauce immediately!
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2-23-2010 @12:29PM Kaosgoblin said... How about instead of redesigning foods and fouling up entire industries of production, you people teach your vaginal spawn to chew things properly. In the entire history of the human species there has never been a group of more spoiled molly-coddled useless emo wanks than the children being raised in the last two decades. Make them go outside and face that bright thing they are afraid of, you know, the sun, and get some of that thing they think is cold, you know, fresh air.
Here new parents, in case you have got it wrong, this is called parenting:
1) At least one of you should be with your children during the day to help and advise them. If both of you work and you leave them with sitters or nannies, they will not grow up to be your children. That being said;
2) Videogames are a treat, cable television screws them up. Neither are a suitable replacement for their parent, and cannot be used to "get them out of your hair". If you dont have time for children, dont you dare have them.
3) Teach your children how to live, that includes chewing, breathing before and after they swallow, not during, and that healthy active lifestyles where they get cuts, bumps and bruises and where strangers can see them are important for the development of their future survival, otherwise they turn into inept twonks like you.
4) There isnt enough fists in the world to bonk you on your moron heads for how many other tips you apparently need. use your damn common sense.
* The preceding was aimed at idiots, not those who understand and already know how to raise a healthy strong human being into something resembling balanced.
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2-24-2010 @10:22AM Ellerphant said... stop fighting natural selection. this herd needs some thinning
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2-23-2010 @3:55PM Jessica said... How about redesigning the breeding process so that the morons giving these foods to their children unsupervised just can't procreate? Or *GASP* try cutting it into SMALLER PIECES!!! The knife was invented for a reason.
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2-23-2010 @5:16PM Daniel F. said... I will refer you to the aforementioned "Idiocracy Society." We can't have a pet Llama, but these people are allowed spread their genes unchecked.
2-23-2010 @7:25PM Ming said... The answer should be YES! This p-----s me off because the US banned my favorite chinese gelatin candy because some kids choked and died swallowing them whole. While a tragedy, and I'm not down playing that, they outright banned the candy in the US. I always wondered how many kids die of choking on hotdogs. If they're going to ban the candy, then they should just as the one of first commenters mention have us all eat via some slurry mix.
Parents need to teach their children to chew....
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2-25-2010 @9:04AM dg said... I bet the idiots yelling to redesign hot hot dogs are the ones yelling for the government to keep its hands off their government benefits. Haven't they ever heard of using a knife and fork to cut up "dangerous" food or would that take too much time from "The Price is Right?"
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