Emergencies may arise any time and may even place a risk on child safety. One common emergency is choking. When a child is choking or can’t breath, it means that an object — usually food or a toy — is lodged in the trachea (airway opening and is keeping air from flowing normally into or out of the lungs.

Most of the time, a food or object only partially blocks the trachea. It is likely that it can be removed by cough (a normal mechanism of the body in attempt to expel any foreign object that blocks inside the airway). A child who seems to be choking and coughing but is still able to breathe and talk probably will recover after a few seconds. It can be uncomfortable but the child is generally fine afterwards.

Here are other several possible scenarios you might face and tips on how to handle them:
If a child is choking and coughing but can breathe and talk, the airway is not completely blocked and it’s best to do nothing. The child will likely be fine after a good coughing spell. Don’t reach into the mouth to grab the object or even pat the child on the back. Either of these steps could push the object farther down the airway and make the situation worse. Stay with the child and remain calm until the episode passes.

If a child is conscious but can’t breathe, talk, or make noise, or is turning blue, the situation calls for abdominal thrusts. Begin to relieve choking if you’ve been trained to do so. If you haven’t been trained, and no one else is available to perform it, call for emergency help or bring to the nearest hospital for assistance.

If the child was choking and is now unconscious and no longer breathing, call for help and then proceed immediately to perform abdominal thrusts, (also known as the Heimlich maneuver), the standard rescue procedure for choking, if you’ve been trained to do it properly.If you have not, call for an emergency help right away in the hospital.

Take note of these, a child may be choking and need help right away if he or she:

* is unable to breathe
* is gasping or wheezing
* is unable to talk, cry, or make noise
* turns blue
* grabs at his or her throat or waves arms
* appears panicked

If those cases persist, seek for medical assistance immediately to save the life of the child.

Bouts of cough are normal for infants. Thus you do not have to worry too much about it when it comes. But you should not be complacent likewise. The more common causes of infant cough are the common cold virus and allergies.

As a parent, the priority of infant care in the incidence of cough is if there are other symptoms which go hand in hand with cough. If so, it may be an indication of a more serious health condition. Here are a few symptoms which you must always be on the look-out for:

• fever
• difficulty in breathing
• appetite problems

Treatment for infant cough are a bit risky because there are really no cough suppresants for younger children. Thus, your response should be to always seek a doctor’s consultation. In the meantime, there are simple procedures you can do to help soothe the feeling of your child.

Mist humidifers are sometimes useful. But the tried and tested tact of a steam bath or even letting your baby sniff steam is still one of the most effective methods to relieve your child’s cough.