Eva Bild - Supporting New Parents

Fact: Gagging is not choking and gagging does not lead to choking.

The body is designed to protect the airway and keep food out of the airway during both eating and swallowing and gagging, and even when throwing up.

When food is swallowed, more than 50 muscles work together to coordinate the motion. One is our vocal folds coming together like sliding doors in the breathing tube to tightly close off our airway and prevent anything from entering it. Amazingly, the muscles of the throat close tightly shut and the airway is pulled up and slightly forward, safely out of the way when we vomit or gag so that particles of food or liquid do not enter it.

So how does choking occur?

Choking occurs when there is a miscoordination of the swallow and food or liquid sneaks past our multiple lines of defense.

Things that can increase the risk of such type of coordination failure include:

✔️Caregiver placing finger food in a child’s mouth
✔️Caregiver putting their fingers in a child’s mouth
✔️Eating while in a reclined position
✔️Eating while laughing or coughing
✔️Eating while crying
✔️Eating while walking around
✔️Being startled while eating
✔️Lack of supervision while eating
✔️Eating while distracted

To access our free choking rescue guides for babies and toddlers download the Solid Starts App 📲

Quantifying the association between doula care and maternal and neonatal outcomes https://ow.ly/8rmW50XzJNO

The child who trails you from room to room isn’t trying to wear you down.

They’re seeking something you don’t always realise you’re giving — safety, familiarity, a heartbeat they trust.

We forget that to them, we are home long before any place is.

Our presence steadies their world.
Our nearness softens their edges.
And when they follow us endlessly, it’s not neediness — it’s belonging in motion.

One day they’ll wander further, lost in their own interests, their own lives, their own unfolding.

But right now, they choose us — freely, wholeheartedly, instinctively. They’re not being difficult.

They’re reminding us that, in this season of their life, we are their most favourite place to be. ❤️