Choking Hazard

Before the baby was even born, I was trying to instill in my older children to watch out for small things on the ground. "The baby could choke on that!" Now that he's at the age of crawling (racing) around the house and putting everything in his mouth, we are all vigilant. Still, we find things in his mouth: stickers, old cheerios, a pebble, a screw, random dirt particles and dust bunnies.

Twice when I've buckled him into his carseat after picking him up from the nursery at the gym, I've found things in his mouth (a sticker and a piece of a foam craft project).

The worst was Sunday. When I picked him up from the church nursery, the woman told me another worker was picking him up to change his diaper. When she laid him on the changing table, he started choking. The worker panicked, and the woman telling me about the incident raced over and stuck her fingers back in his throat and pulled out a piece of wood.

I was dumbfounded taking this in, alternately wanting to comfort the women working there and holding back my tears of fear as it sank in what could have happened. My husband kept reminding me, "He is OK. Anything can happen. This is why we have to pray for protection of our children."

I have since talked to two church administrators to make sure they were aware of the situation, and both were. The church is taking measures to beef up prevention, which is comforting, but I am still fearful.

Today I was following him around our house, stepping up my own vigilance, and do you know what? He was standing two feet from me and I'd been watching him constantly when I heard the choking noise. I jumped up and felt to the back of the throat, where I found a twig.

I immediately put him in the highchair so I could regroup.

I realized all I can do is pray. I cannot watch over him every second. I can continue to work on prevention (and I have several ideas for the moments when I have to turn my back, cook dinner, help another child), but his whole life, I cannot catch every detail. And even if I could, I could put him in someone else's charge for even an hour, and something could happen.

I remembered that a friend had called Friday to ask about getting together to pray for our children. Having children requires so much trust in the Lord. It's a constant walk forward, dodging fears, hoping for miracles.

How can I not get together to pray for my children? She was talking about a Moms in Touch group, which I know a little about and want to learn more. I also told her about a prayer group I had been in before having kids and before getting married. And I mentioned the books that have been great prayer resources for me, Power of a Praying Parent and Power of a Praying Wife by Stormy O'Martian. I called my friend back today and said, "Yes." We don't know yet what this time will look like. But we are working on it.