A mum has shared an X-ray image of a grape lodged in a child’s throat to remind parents about the choking risk posed of the fruit.
Australian mum Angela Henderson, who runs parenting blog Finlee and Me, re-shared a photo from a paediatrician in order to raise awareness.
“Attention parents - do you know what this X-ray is of? A grape,” she wrote on Facebook on Tuesday 4 April alongside an image of the scan.
“A grape that was lodged in the top of a five-year-old’s airway today.”
Henderson continued: “This sweet soul had to be operated on, under general anaesthetic to remove the grape.
“He is very lucky that part of his airway was open or else this could have ended badly. So please be mindful that not all kids chew their food [because they] are in a rush at school to get in the playground.
“Please be careful. And when in doubt just cut the damn grapes or baby tomatoes.”
The image, which has been shared more than 23,000 times in less than a week, shocked many parents who weren’t aware of the danger.
“Oh my gosh I need to start cutting up grapes,” one mum wrote. “Just never knew they could be lodged like this. Thank you so much.”
Another wrote: “This scares me. Already sort of knew they should be cut up but good to get a reminder like this.”
Many other parents just tagged friends and family members on the post to make sure more people had seen it.
In December 2016, doctors sent out a warning to parents about the dangers of children choking on whole grapes.
Writing in the ‘Archives of Disease in Childhood’, doctors said whole grapes were the third most common cause of food-related choking, after hot dogs and sweets.
But they said public awareness of the danger posed by whole grapes was not “widespread”.
“Any injury, accident and death is a tragedy but it is even more so when that injury, accident or death could have been prevented,” said Dr Julie-Ann Maney, of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said.
“This highlights just how dangerous seemingly harmless items of food can be for young children if they are not eaten in the correct way.
“I would urge all parents to cut food up into small pieces to avoid a seemingly harmless situation turning into a deadly one.”