Kid choked and now scared to swallow food

[Anonymous]

My 5 year old choked on a chip at school a week ago. It went down on its own but she was scared enough that she was in tears and told the teacher. She never cries at school.

She ate dinner normally that night but the next day wouldn’t swallow her food after chewing. She would only swallow food if she sipped water to wash it down. She has been able to eat ice cream and popsicles normally, and drinking anything has been fine.

It’s been a week of this and she’s at the point where she’s upset about it, avoiding foods she thinks will be hard for her to swallow and taking a sip of water after chewing each bite. But I have seen her swallow solids without water when she was distracted - she ate a whole cookie when we were out shopping, swallowed some bites of pizza, etc. If she’s thinking about it, which is pretty much all meals and snacks, then it’s like she’s forgotten how to get the food to go down.

I know the chip might have caused an abrasion and she could have had some pain initially that caused her to be afraid to swallow, but it’s been a week and at this point it seems like it’s mostly habit/behavioral since I’ve seen her swallow normally on several occasions.

Anyone else ever had anything like this? What helped?

[Anonymous]

She is at risk of developing ARFID.

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/eating-disorders/what-is-arfid

[Anonymous]

Get your chihld with a therapist. They are traumatized and need some support working through it. Don't wait pls.

[Anonymous]

Da hell

[Anonymous]

Point out to her that she has chewed and swallowed without water when distracted and everything's fine. Suggest to her that she cut her food up in bite-sized pieces, and take it slow, but eat, and sip water normally, not to wash down each bite. Point out to her how MANY five year old's have choked and yet gone on to live for years and years successfully eating, and she can too - she just needs to trust her body, both to chew and swallow AND to cough something up if it's not going down right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get your chihld with a therapist. They are traumatized and need some support working through it. Don't wait pls.

Agree 100%. Start by calling her pediatrician. You don't want to mess around with eating stuff.

[Anonymous]

This happened to our child. It was very scary for them, and we always reaffirmed their fear, and acknowledged that it was real. We let them eat foods at their own pace. We talked about chewing a lot, small bites, how to communicate they are choking, drinking water. Eventually they did become more confident, but still suspicious at times. They still refuse certain foods if they are chewy. If you are worried, definitely seek out someone to help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happened to our child. It was very scary for them, and we always reaffirmed their fear, and acknowledged that it was real. We let them eat foods at their own pace. We talked about chewing a lot, small bites, how to communicate they are choking, drinking water. Eventually they did become more confident, but still suspicious at times. They still refuse certain foods if they are chewy. If you are worried, definitely seek out someone to help.

This exactly. It took some time for her to get past it, but we remained patient and reassuring. I think this is key and reaching out to your pediatrician is a great idea if you start to worry more or the behavior starts edging toward extreme.

[Anonymous]

this happened on young sheldon - you might watch the episode/s!

[Anonymous]

This happened with DS around the same age. Full on choking requiring me to do the Heimlich. We called his ped after we noticed how anxious he was to eat. Ped said that reaction is super common and recommended a therapist for him. Worked great and DS was back to his normal self pretty quickly once he was able to process his fears.