Experts warn about unusually large grapes

Toddlers love their fruit, but experts have an “incredibly distressing” warning all parents should hear.

If your little ones’ love eating grapes, then make sure you take time to cut in half, particularly as this season’s grapes are large enough to become choking hazard warns paediatrician Dr Luke Sammartino.

“We are seeing grapes this season that are particularly big,” Dr Luke told The Herald Sun.

“This can present a choking hazard and there have been cases where children have swallowed a whole grape and it has become stuck in their throats.

For more stories like this, go to Kidspot.com.au

Terrifying x-ray shows the risk of toddlers choking on grapes. Picture: Facebook.

“THE CLIMATE HAS IMPACTED THE SIZE OF GRAPES”

“As a paediatrician who consults with hundreds of families every year, I have seen and heard it all and an incident like this is obviously incredibly distressing for parents and constitutes an emergency situation requiring immediate attention.”

According to Jeff Scott from the Australian Grape Association, due to the dry winter, sunny days and minimal rainfall, the climate has impacted the grape’s size.

But whatever the size, experts still warn that grapes should be cut up in any case to avoid choking hazards.

RELATED: How to identify choking hazards at home

RELATED: Confronting photo shows the reality of choking

Expert's warning over unusully large grapes. Picture: Herald Sun.

“THERE SHOULD BE WARNINGS”

Dr Cooper, who practices emergency medicine at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital and is the co-author of a “plea for awareness” published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, said that not enough people understand the dangers of soft fruits like grapes and even suggests there should be warnings on the packaging.

“We only see the tip of the iceberg, we only see it when it is not alleviated,” Dr Cooper said, referring to the likely high numbers of grape-related choking incidents that would be occurring outside of the emergency room.

RELATED: My son was choking in his cot

RELATED: The food most likely to send choking kids to the ER

Dr Cooper recommends parents take caution with grapes. Picture: Herald Sun

Dr Cooper’s paper states, “Whole grapes are ideally suited to cause paediatric airway obstruction and, though regularly implicated, knowledge that this popular fruit, and other similarly shaped foods, is a choking hazard is not widespread.”

“Ideally we would like supermarkets and big chains to consider putting some choking hazard warning labels on [grapes], just like they do on toys and other things.”

Grapes are the third most common cause of food-related fatal choking incidents after hotdogs and sweets, according to Dr Cooper’s paper.

The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne recommends parents supervise children under the age of three eating at all times, and that food like grapes be chopped into small sizes to prevent choking.

Faye James is the Night Editor for Kidspot

This story originally appeared on Kidspot.com.au and is reproduced with permission