Hot Dog Security
A nice dose of risk reality:
Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement calling for large-type warning labels on the foods that kids most commonly choke on—grapes, nuts, carrots, candy and public enemy No. 1: the frank. Then the lead author of the report, pediatric emergency room doctor Gary Smith, went one step further.
He called for a redesign of the hot dog.
The reason, he said, is that hot dogs are “high-risk.” But are they? I mean, I certainly diced my share of Oscar Mayers when my kids were younger, but if once in a while we stopped for a hot dog and I gave it to ’em whole, was I really taking a crazy risk?
Here are the facts: About 61 children each year choke to death on food, or one in a million. Of them, 17 percent—or about 10—choke on franks. So now we are talking 1 in 6 million. This is still tragic; the death of any child is. But to call it “high-risk” means we would have to call pretty much all of life “high-risk.” Especially getting in a car! About 1,300 kids younger than 14 die each year as car passengers, compared with 10 a year from hot dogs.
What’s happening is that the concept of “risk” is broadening to encompass almost everything a kid ever does, from running to sitting to sleeping. Literally!
There’s a lot of good stuff on this website about how to raise children without being crazy paranoid. She comments on my worst-case thinking essay, too.
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HJohn • June 17, 2010 2:38 PM
One in six million could die of almost anything. I suspect hot dogs are a culprit this often (which is not often at all), not because they are deadly but because they are common. I doubt many kids choke on shrimp cocktail and caviar.
I do understand paranoid fear with children. My twin daughters just turned 1 yesterday, and my wife and I will have to be careful not to be overprotective, because it took us so many years and heartbreaks to have kids (while most our friends’ kids were turning teen).
Kids need to learn a few lessons that are best to learn when their parents are their. Don’t put too much in your mouth, chew it before you swallow it, etc. are in that list. Check for peanuts if you are allergic is another.
What a redesign of the hot dog and the overprotection of children will not measure is how many of them will die or get injured in the future because they were shielded from learning life’s important lessons when under the protective care of a parent.