First Aid for Swallowing issue of throat choking

What is throat choking and why it is a swallowing issue?

A swallowing issue in which sticking of a piece of food in the pharynx (throat) of humans during swallowing results in breathing difficulty, difficulty in talking, and blocking of the air passageways is called as throat choking.

Types of throat Chocking:

1. Throat choking partial blockage: This kind of throat choking is a small swallowing issue. In this issue, the throat didn’t block completely and a person after sticking food in the throat still has some space for breathing. However, during this situation, the person is very uncomfortable and can hardly talk and breathe.

2. Throat choking complete blockage: This kind of throat blocking is a very serious swallowing issue. In this issue, a large oval lump or large-sized object is stuck in the pharynx and this totally blocks the pharyngeal space. This situation is very serious and making more difficult by stopping the movement of fresh air (oxygen-containing) resulting in blockage of breathing.

What causes throat chocking:

The most common causes of throat choking are the issues with swallowing:

1. Taking large-sized pieces of food into the mouth
2. Talking during eating.
3. Eating very quickly
4. Felting some unwanted object in food.
5. Swallowing incompletely masticated food.
6. Multitasking (such as walking) during eating
7. Swallowing bone or fish spine within the (bolus) oval lump
8. Some serious infections of the throat
9. By hearing sudden shocking news during eating
10. Sometimes sudden stress and anxiety also result in choking. This is due to the reason that stress diverts our attention toward our eating behaviors.

How do I know if anybody choked?

We must know the symptoms of choking because it will help us to care about ourselves as well as for giving first aid to a miserable person that is trapped in this unfortunate situation. This swallowing issue has the following signs and symptoms;

1. The first symptom is sticking food in the throat
2. Issue with swallowing
3. Coughing during swallowing
4. Difficulty in breathing
5. Difficulty in talking
6. Wheezing
7. Severe pain in the throat and chest
8. Cyanosis of lips, and nails
9. Redness of the face
10. Gagging

Consequences:

Throat choking sometimes results in very serious problems. This swallowing issue results in the following consequences.

1. Difficulty in breathing and talking: This is a very immediate problem and prevails until the stuck object is not removed.  
2. Aspiratory pneumonia: Sometimes food particle moves into the lungs leading to severe lungs infection called aspiratory pneumonia.
3. Pharyngeal Injuries: If the stuck object has a bone or fish spine, it results in serious injuries to the throat.
4. Suffocation: This results from the complete blockage of the throat, stopping breathing, and results in suffocation. This is rare but dangerous because suffocation leads to the death of the person.   

Home remedies for the treatment of throat choking:

What should we do when anybody choked? In this regard, we are recommending the easiest and most good first aid practices to get rid of this uncomfortable situation. We can easily help the person affected with this swallowing issue by utilizing the following practices.

1. For partial blockage of the throat mostly involuntary coughing started resulting in the dislodging of stuck food making the affected person comfortable. If this didn’t happen then ask the affected person voluntarily and forcefully cough. During this process, the stuck food dislodges and opens the airway.
2. If voluntary coughing in partial blockage didn’t give any results, then bend the affected person and slap him on the back with your palm in a rubbing manner and ask the person to cough voluntarily. (Remember one thing that doesn’t try this first aid strategy while standing upright because sometimes the sticking lump moves a little deeper making it more uncomfortable to the affected person.)
3. Don’t give water to the affected person in a more difficult situation because this results in sticking of lump deeper and also more likely water comes out through the nose making it more difficult for the affected person.
4. In case of complete blockage, make the affected individual stand upright and stand behind his back. Put your hands on his stomach and give him shocks in a manner lifting up, until the stuck material comes out.
5. If the person starts losing consciousness, immediately call for emergency and try to recover his breathing by CPR. Remember that CPR is only workable when airways have some space for breathing.
6. In case when anybody is alone, and he will not find any help from his near, he should stand on the back of a sofa or soft support and push his stomach by putting his weight on the body. If you don’t have a sofa or soft support place your hands on your stomach or pillow before pushing your body against support. Don’t stand on the back of a wooden chair having sharp edges directly because this practice sometimes makes serious kinds of injuries.

Throat choking prevention:

The purpose of this article is to aware people of this uncomfortable situation. Because sometimes this swallowing issue results in very serious consequences. So, how do we prevent ourselves from choking?

1. We should avoid multitasking during eating our meals. Multitasking results in the diversion of our attention to our food and this will create an uncomfortable issue with swallowing.
2. We should avoid talking during our eating because our talking interferes with the swallowing reflex.
3. We should avoid taking food in large pieces because this not only increases the chance of throat choking but also results in incomplete mastication.
4. We should eat food by sitting in a comfortable posture. This will reduce the chances of throat choking.
5. Don’t eat too quickly, because a quick eating style increases the chances of throat choking.
6. Only swallow food when completely masticated. The completely masticated food moves smoothly in our digestive tract. The completely masticated food is also easily digestible.