Index
I was walking on the net and I saw in Revista Caras , that the presenter of Globo’s Well Being, Mariana Ferrão had a fright with her newborn son Miguel, just 1 week old. She was nursing when the baby choked! Luckily she knew techniques and maneuvers learned on the show and she even said on Instagram that it saved her baby. But what about us moms at home on a daily basis, how to deal with these scary hours?
Well when my oldest daughter was 2 years old, she ate a piece of bread and playing with her cousin hugged each other. I think they lost their balance and they will fall from the first step of a 3-step ladder. As she was hugging her cousin, she fell on her back and sniffed the bread. We were my mother-in-law and I, both lost and imagine the scare! Joana was purple, limp and couldn’t breathe. I rolled my eyes and I was desperate! I confess that there was a lack of spirit on my part, I assume that I was without reaction after all, we never imagine ourselves going through this. Luckily and instinctively, I threw Joana on her shoulders and that put pressure on the diaphragm causing her to disengage, if it wasn’t that I don’t even know what could have happened, it was God Himself.
After that I decided to learn maneuvers for unloading. I read articles, first aid manuals and when it happened again this time with the newborn Dudu I already knew what to do and I was calmer, after all I was already the second child and it was not the first scare. I remember I saw him coughing and I ran to see what it was and I saw that I couldn’t draw air to breathe so I did what I had learned. The procedure is called the Heimlich maneuver and it is nothing more than what we always see in the movies, a way of tightening the diaphragm until the object that is obstructing the breath comes out and the person starts breathing normally again. The problem that this maneuver in children has to be more delicate because the baby’s body is fragile.
How to make?
Place the child with the lower head and hold the baby with one hand (position half turned down) supported on the lap and tilted down, give 5 pats in the middle of the baby’s back towards the lung (middle of the shoulder blades). If it doesn’t work, repeat but this time compressing the baby’s front part, in the middle of the chest, where the rib cage bone ends. Remember that it should be firm but light , the baby is fragile. Use the 2 fingers, index and middle. Do this until the child breathes again, in the meantime ask someone to call 911, the police are prepared to assist in these cases.
The maneuver can also be done in children, but in the specific case it is done in another way, it is very similar to the maneuver in adults. Hold the child from behind and wrap your arms around the child’s abdomen, and with your closed hand make “pulling” movements with jumps in the diaphragm. Mom, never, never put your finger inside the child’s throat, it could be worse! Instead of pulling, you can push the object making the situation worse, just try if you can see the object inside the child’s mouthand still leaving it without movement. And in the case of milk, the recommended thing is to suck the baby’s nostrils with your mouth. that’s what helped Mariana Ferrão save little Miguel! After everything passes, the legs become soft and then the crying comes, but safety at the time of the scare is essential!
Bjus and see you next time!
See also: Breastfeeding- Difficulties and Solutions
My name is Dr. Alexis Hart I am 38 years old, I am the mother of 3 beautiful children! Different ages, different phases 16 years, 12 years and 7 years. In love with motherhood since always, I found it difficult to make my dreams come true, and also some more after I was already a mother.
Since I imagined myself as a mother, in my thoughts everything seemed to be much easier and simpler than it really was, I expected to get pregnant as soon as I wished, but it wasn’t that simple. The first pregnancy was smooth, but my daughter’s birth was very troubled. Joana was born in 2002 with a weight of 2930kg and 45cm, from a very peaceful cesarean delivery but she had already been born with congenital pneumonia due to a broken bag not treated with antibiotics even before delivery.
