Watch the child die obviously. /s. Now you know you are a freezer, keep this in mind and try to do some mental scenario exercises?

I’ve been terrified of this exact thing, choking kids specifically, I’m not trained, my wife is but I’m not, I have an amazing what I call dad reflex, I have stopped my kids from getting hurt many times but choking I’m not sure what I would do.

Just remember, if they make sounds they arnt choking THAT bad and should probably not be slapped around or anything, just wait for them to choke it down.

When people are REALLY choking, they cant make sounds because they cant breathe.

Cough cough and waah waah means they are still breathing and intervening could cause them to choke fully.

A lot of people are useless in emergency situations. Training is one way to get over that hurdle. Face emergency situations in a controlled setting, over and over. Eventually you will be able to react and control your responses. Or not, in which case step aside. Or just freeze.

Alright, so when I was a kid, my famiy was on one of our numerous cross country drives and we stopped at a Wendy's to get some dinner before continuing on our way. While eating my little brother began to choke on his spicy chicken sandwich. Parents slap him on the back and he stops choking, everything is fine. Later in the car, my brother keeps saying he smells something spicy and blowing his nose. After awhile we laydown in the back seat and all of the sudden my brother begins to choke again. I proceed to smack him on the back until he spits out a giant bite of chicken sandwich. Apparently the bite he had been choking on earlier got lodged at the back of his nasal cavity. He had been blowing his nose which just blew all of the spicy breading off of the bite of chicken before it became dislodged and began choking him again. Fun times

Depending on the age, just leaning the child over your knee and whacking their back between the sholderblades is pretty effective. I do that about every three damn days with my almost two year old who is learning to eat.

I actually did the opposite at last years Thanksgiving. My nieces kid who was 17 months at the time started choking on something and I snapped him up out of his high chair and flipped him upside down by one leg and gave him a light open palm to the chest and he horked out a un-chewed piece of green bean. Nobody else had the situational awareness to even see what was happening until it was all over.

At least you knew what was going on, situational awareness is good just don't think about the rest and react.