3 year old died at the DOL daycare

[Anonymous]

It was a mini meatball sandwich - the January menu is on the daycare's website. This is unimaginably tragic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:May God take that little soul to Heaven. May that child rest in eternal joy and rest.

I pray for peace and support for the family, and for the entire community of that daycare.

May we all--parents and teachers and caregivers alike--give our children and our charges extra love and attention and care. May we also--parents and teachers and caregivers alike--remember to give our fellow parents and staff extra love and attention.

God, in your mercy, please send love and healing and peace to all who have been affected by this terrible tragedy.

Amen

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well the family is on WTOP speaking ill of the daycare before they have all the facts. I'm sorry about what happened but they are obviously looking for someone to blame based on the radio interview. Sometimes it's just a shitty thing that happens and no one is to blame.

Yeah, but sometimes someone IS to blame, and that may very well be the case here. I think it's likely the parents have more facts about what occurred than you do.

It was a meatball at daycare, not a handgun. Sometimes accidents happen. We don't need to "blame" anyone. I'm sure the daycare workers feel terrible .

Were they expecting the children to cut up their own meatballs??

Do meatballs really need cutting up? They're already made up of finely cut up and ground pieces of meat. It's not steak - meatballs are already soft and very smushable. There has to be more to this story.

[Anonymous]

Are the adults required to be sitting at the table with the children, or not?

[Anonymous]

Sometimes things are a freak accident. I have a family friend, in his 50s, who suffered a severe anoxic brain injury from choking on a piece of hamburger. Heimlich was administered but he had to be trached by a paramedic. He now has about 33% brain function and is a paraplegic with a trach and a feeding tube. It sucks. Accidents happen and it's horrible when they do.

Now, if there were no teachers in the room or something along those lines, that's a different story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:May God take that little soul to Heaven. May that child rest in eternal joy and rest.

I pray for peace and support for the family, and for the entire community of that daycare.

May we all--parents and teachers and caregivers alike--give our children and our charges extra love and attention and care. May we also--parents and teachers and caregivers alike--remember to give our fellow parents and staff extra love and attention.

God, in your mercy, please send love and healing and peace to all who have been affected by this terrible tragedy.

Amen

Thank you, PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes things are a freak accident. I have a family friend, in his 50s, who suffered a severe anoxic brain injury from choking on a piece of hamburger. Heimlich was administered but he had to be trached by a paramedic. He now has about 33% brain function and is a paraplegic with a trach and a feeding tube. It sucks. Accidents happen and it's horrible when they do.

Now, if there were no teachers in the room or something along those lines, that's a different story.

If reasonable safety precautions were observed, that's one thing. But giving meatballs to a bunch of toddlers is quite another thing.

[Anonymous]

So many people commenting on the meatballs. Kids can choke on lots of things, from food to toys to pennies. The issue is why adults were not able to correctly do the Heimlich or CPR. THAT is what seems very, very bad to me here. When you entrust your kids to adults, you trust that they know how to deal with a choking situation. To me this indicates that adults were not paying attention and got to the situation too late, or did not deal with it effectively and/or had very poor training. A daycare should be able to handle kids choking, and a meatball is soft enough that it is not considered a major hazard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well the family is on WTOP speaking ill of the daycare before they have all the facts. I'm sorry about what happened but they are obviously looking for someone to blame based on the radio interview. Sometimes it's just a shitty thing that happens and no one is to blame.

Yeah, but sometimes someone IS to blame, and that may very well be the case here. I think it's likely the parents have more facts about what occurred than you do.

It was a meatball at daycare, not a handgun. Sometimes accidents happen. We don't need to "blame" anyone. I'm sure the daycare workers feel terrible .

Were they expecting the children to cut up their own meatballs??

Do meatballs really need cutting up? They're already made up of finely cut up and ground pieces of meat. It's not steak - meatballs are already soft and very smushable. There has to be more to this story.

Agreed. I don't think meatballs are a problem, and not for three year olds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why were meatballs served to preschoolers?!

A three year should be capable of eating a meatball. I'm wondering if maybe there was a bone in the meat? Regardless, so heartbreaking.

Blaming the child for choking to death. What a lovely person you must be.

Np. How on earth was pp blaming the preschooler??!

They are right - three year olds should be capable of eating regular meatballs. If there was a bone, or something else in it, that does not mean the child is to "blame" - but maybe a manufacturing problem? Or just sometimes, really terrible circumstances where stars align in a terrible, unfortunate way? Tragic no matter what, and I hope there is a thorough investigation. But your raging on pp is unfounded.

I would think that a "party size" meatball, if that's what was served, would absolutely be on par with a whole grape or chunk of hot dog in terms of being a choking hazard for a child that age.

Regardless, on a thread about the choking death of a child, to remark that "a three year old should be capable of eating a meatball" sounds pretty fucking callous to me.

The comment about a three-year-old being able to eat a meatball was in reply to one of the first comments asking why preschoolers were being served meatballs. I don't think anybody is blaming the child at all. I think they are Just saying that it is a typical food that can safely be served to that age group. [/quot
e]

Yes, isn't spaghetti & meatballs a staple of many kids'menus? I don't think it is unusual at all to feed a 3-year-old meatbalms.Whether or not there was something (texture?shape/size ?) about the particular meatballs in question that causes the child to choke or if there was some unknown physical issue that would have likely caused him to choke on most foods , however, remains to be seen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why were meatballs served to preschoolers?!

A three year should be capable of eating a meatball. I'm wondering if maybe there was a bone in the meat? Regardless, so heartbreaking.

Blaming the child for choking to death. What a lovely person you must be.

Np. How on earth was pp blaming the preschooler??!

They are right - three year olds should be capable of eating regular meatballs. If there was a bone, or something else in it, that does not mean the child is to "blame" - but maybe a manufacturing problem? Or just sometimes, really terrible circumstances where stars align in a terrible, unfortunate way? Tragic no matter what, and I hope there is a thorough investigation. But your raging on pp is unfounded.

I would think that a "party size" meatball, if that's what was served, would absolutely be on par with a whole grape or chunk of hot dog in terms of being a choking hazard for a child that age.

Regardless, on a thread about the choking death of a child, to remark that "a three year old should be capable of eating a meatball" sounds pretty fucking callous to me.

The comment about a three-year-old being able to eat a meatball was in reply to one of the first comments asking why preschoolers were being served meatballs. I don't think anybody is blaming the child at all. I think they are Just saying that it is a typical food that can safely be served to that age group. [/quot
e]

Yes, isn't spaghetti & meatballs a staple of many kids'menus? I don't think it is unusual at all to feed a 3-year-old meatbalms.Whether or not there was something (texture?shape/size ?) about the particular meatballs in question that causes the child to choke or if there was some unknown physical issue that would have likely caused him to choke on most foods , however, remains to be seen.

PP here again

Or, as another poster indicated, this issue may have been inadequate supervision. In any case, I don't think meatballs are generally seen as posing any more of a choking hazzard to three-year-olds than most other solid foods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes things are a freak accident. I have a family friend, in his 50s, who suffered a severe anoxic brain injury from choking on a piece of hamburger. Heimlich was administered but he had to be trached by a paramedic. He now has about 33% brain function and is a paraplegic with a trach and a feeding tube. It sucks. Accidents happen and it's horrible when they do.

Now, if there were no teachers in the room or something along those lines, that's a different story.

Yes, I think we should all wait until the details have been confirmed before condemning the daycare teachers. While it is quite possible there was gross negligence involved, it is also quite possible there wasn't. Just like when a child dies from something like this at home. Sometimes it is in large part the fault of the parent (or nanny, grandparent, aunt, babysitter, whoever...) who was at home caring for the child at the time but, perhaps even more often, it is nobody's fault, really, just a terrilbe tragedy that can only be fairly blamed on horrific luck.

[Anonymous]

Jesus. Just google choking meatballs and you'll see all the news articles about kids dying from it. But please, carry on with your witch hunt if it pleases you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DOL daycare provides all food.

Does anyone know whether DOL uses Good Food Company for their catering?

FWIW, I work at a center that uses Good Foods and we don't have meatballs on our menu.

I was involved in the selection of Good Food for another child care center and meatballs are definitely not on the menu. Our contact tab good Food is responsive and we've found the menus to be age appropriate. It is bad enough that posters are looking to blame the child care workers without any information but absolutely horrible that posters are trying to find a way to blame Good Food. It was a terrible accident; it was not the fault of the food vendor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes things are a freak accident. I have a family friend, in his 50s, who suffered a severe anoxic brain injury from choking on a piece of hamburger. Heimlich was administered but he had to be trached by a paramedic. He now has about 33% brain function and is a paraplegic with a trach and a feeding tube. It sucks. Accidents happen and it's horrible when they do.

Now, if there were no teachers in the room or something along those lines, that's a different story.

If reasonable safety precautions were observed, that's one thing. But giving meatballs to a bunch of toddlers is quite another thing.

1) 3-year-olds aren't toddlers.

2) As many posters upthread have noted, meatballs are a pretty typical "kid food" & are not generally seen as unsafe for preschoolers as long as they are cut when necessary to lessen the risk of chocking.Whether or not it is typically seen as necessary deoends on the size & shape of the meatballs in question.

Since we don't even know what kind of meatballs were served or whether or not said meatballs were cut up by the staff prior to being given to the kids, isn't it more than a bit premature to decide that the daycare put the kids in undue harm just by serving meatballs?