Mum’s Post About Teething Toy That Caused Baby To Choke Goes Viral

Many parents invest in rubber, chewable toys when their baby is teething as gnawing on something can help relieve the pain in the gums. But one of the most popular styles available has gone viral for all the wrong reasons.

Teething toy Sophie La Girafe almost caused a baby to choke, scaring her mother so much that she felt she had to share her cautionary tale with other parents.

Katie Jones posted a picture of the French toy on Facebook, explaining that she left her baby daughter Paige with the toy for a moment, before returning and realising that her daughter was choking on it.

Paige, now six months old, had got the whole of one of the toy’s legs lodged down her throat. “I had to unhook it free and pull out the leg from the back of her throat. I was absolutely terrified,” she wrote in the post.

Fortunately, Jones reacted quickly and gave her daughter some firm pats to make her be sick and clear her airways.

“I've never felt so terrified in all my life and never in my life could I have foreseen this happening. Poor Paige was too young to remove the leg herself and would of suffocated if I hadn't of realised,” Jones continued.

The mum wrote that she decided to share her story to “make parents aware of a danger” that the teether poses – and urged others not to leave their child alone with it.

“I didn't think it could happen. I'm shocked. Now looking at Sophie I realise how long the legs are and how dangerous this could potentially be to babies who love to chew. Please note my daughter is fine. Yet the memories of it will stay with me forever. Please share this post to forewarn other mums. Don't leave your child unattended with this teether.”

Since being posted two weeks ago, the post has been shared thousands of times and received plenty of supportive comments. One Facebook user, Ceri Britchford, commented that she’d heard of this happening before and wrote that there’s a similar toy but with shorter legs to stop the choking.

Parenting expert and family physician Dr. Deborah Gilboa says that parents should beware of any toy that can extend more than an inch into a child’s mouth. “Kids have different depths to their throats, and parents likely wouldn’t know that, so a guideline should be to make sure all pieces of the toy are less than an inch long and that a child can’t bite any of them off,” she tells Yahoo Parenting.

Sophie the Giraffe, which is seven-inches high total, has legs that are two to three inches long, which, according to Gilboa’s guidelines, qualify it as a potential choking hazard.

In an email to Yahoo Parenting, Calisson Inc., the U.S. distributor of Sophie the Giraffe, said Sophie is not a choking hazard. “Sophie the giraffe complies with all U.S and European safety standards for children for over 50 years and is a wonderful toy,” they said.

The brand itself provided the following statement, "We became aware yesterday of this individual’s Facebook post of 9th July. No complaint has been made and they have not been in touch with us as of yet. Reading the Facebook post, we understand there has been no injury or harm caused. We take safety very seriously and thoroughly investigate any complaints we receive."

[Baby Blog: Why Did No One Warn Me About The Nightmare That’s Teething?]

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