Minimize Choking with a Mesh Bag

Children seem to have a propensity to choke on food.

After an incident where our youngest almost choked on his baby cookie, we have kept all the non-pureed food away from him.  Until now.  The parent hack that I discovered can be used to allow teething babies to enjoy foods otherwise off limits.

Repurposing a Mesh Bag

Using a little mesh bag that came with my cloth nursing pads, to keep them together in the laundry, I’m able to give my teething one an enjoyable snack without worrying that he’s going to choke on too big a bite.  While I bought my nursing pads here in Jakarta, we found similar ones at Amazon [1. Disclosure: Both this link and the link in the sidebar to the Medela Nursing Pads are affiliate links.]  . Mesh bags can be bought alone, but at a more expensive price tag.  The holes in my mesh bag are small enough for pieces of  slobbered-on food to pass through, but not big enough that chokable-sized pieces would.  This mesh bag turned out to be perfect for a toothless baby to become a self-snacker.

We just stuff a snack in the bag (a baby cookie, piece of apple, etc.), tie a knot in it to keep the food at the bottom, close the opening and voila, instant snack holder. We really wanted our youngest to be able to have some food on his own because A). he would enjoy it and B). it would give us a few minutes of peace.  Making these bags work for us in a new way has been wonderful.  Now we can give our son a snack that he can eat on his own and it is actually easier for him to hold onto; and less messy.

Good for On the Go, Too!

These bags have also been helpful in taking food with us on outings.  Food can be put into it to keep the baby occupied at any time, not just when we are sitting down to a meal, like regular jar baby food.

While you should never leave your child alone at this age to feed himself, regardless of a mesh bag or not, having the bag can give any parent a little peace of mind; that your little mind isn’t going to be choking on a piece of anything.

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