Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Pediatricians Want Redesign of Hot Dogs to Curb Kids' Choking

MONDAY, Feb. 22 (HealthDay News) -- The leading group of
pediatricians in the United States is pushing for a redesign of
common foods such as hot dogs and candies, along with new
warning labels placed on food packaging, to help curb sometimes
fatal incidents of child choking.

I know you have probably all seen this story already. If not,
let's all pause and let this sink in...

Okay, now let's continue:

"Any food that has a cylindrical or round shape poses a risk,"
he (Dr. Gary Smith) pointed out. Smith said that hot dogs were
high on the list of foods that could be redesigned -- perhaps
the shape, although he said it would be up to the manufacturers
to figure out the specifics.

I'm not sure how a hot dog could be redesigned, and still be a
hot dog. I am not arguing that we need to protect our kids, but
when The Daughter was very small, we would not give her hot
dogs whole...we always cut them up into little pieces for her.
Maybe we just need to be as careful with hot dogs and little
kids as we are with things like electrical cords, strings from
window blinds, and car seats.

So far there have not been any movements to re-design wires
and strings, we are just expected to take responsibility on our
own.

The article continues:
"Other high-risk foods include...peanuts and nuts, even peanut butter."

Are we going to re-design nuts?

Now, I have a kid. Nobody understands more than me how we
have to love and protect our kids, keep them safe and out of
danger, look out for them, etc. So when I tell you how stupid
this is, don't think I am insensitive.

The point here is, I know the danger, but what are you going to
do? Forbid her from using pencils and forks because of the
danger of stabbing? (You may know from this post that The
Daughter only begrudgingly allows me to use a knife to this day.)

So it's not even just kids that are in danger...even their
so-called protectors need looking out for.

We have to do the best we can and use common sense, as in
everything else in life. Rather than making the manufacturer of
hot dogs take the blame, we need to do this ourselves.

Peace be with you.

8 comments:

  1. You make great points! It seems like the more time passes, the more stupid we become as a society. My wife and I were watching this report on the news last night. She eventually tired of my rant and told me to shut up.

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  2. beef can be hard to chew and create chocking hazzard. time to redesign beef.

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  3. I, too, cut foods that are choking hazards and add much supervision while children are eating it. Must add... wasn't pleased with the whole vitamin gumball concept! Call me over-protective, my kids sure did and still do.

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  4. My oldest choked on a cracker once when he was about 2....Poor kid didn't get another cracker till he was 6...lol

    My kids couldn't eat grapes till they were 8 (my youngest is stoked cause he's 8)...I have sorta put an age limit on everything by this time, I guess over the years with my kids I've learned (with some parental advice) what is a good idea and what isn't such a good idea....

    I'm not sure we need a doctor to tell us that a nut the size of our kids throat is going to potentially choke them. I think maybe we just get it...I wonder if they realize (as you did) how silly they sound...

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  5. I hadn't seen that. That's just stupid. Somewhere along the line you have to say it's the parent's responsibility. Accidents happen and it's tragic when they do, but you can't just go changing everything because of a rare chance.

    When I was 2 I bit a glass hard enough to break it in my mouth. Doesn't mean we should be stuck with plastic glasses.

    Good post.

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  6. Oh, it's possible to choke on many things. Especially popcorn (ew, bad souvenir:P). But redesigning hotdogs...that's just weird! How hard is it to take a knife and just cut the hotdog up? Maybe pediatricians should worry about other diseases and medical concerns (god knows they aren't missing!)

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  7. How deep does the idiocy goes? I get irritated when we all have to change because some moron needs instructions to do common sense things like not let his kid choke on a frickin' hot dog...

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  8. I'm not surprised by this but it still pisses me off. When are we going to start taking responsibility for ourselves? If you don't like the shape of a hot dog then don't buy them, better yet cut them up so your kids can eat them, of course we all know we shouldn't eat hot dogs anyway because they are so bad for us. On second thought just ban them completely.

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