Enlightenment activities about foreign substances in children’s airway—Investigation of awareness in national and public kindergartens in Mie Prefecture—

Abstract

Fatal accidents due to suffocation caused by foreign substances in the airways of children and accidents due to tracheal/bronchial foreign bodies occur approx. 20 and 100 or more times per year, respectively. To prevent such accidents, it is important to enlighten parents and caregivers of children. To date, the author has primarily been engaged in enlightening kindergarten teachers. In this study, we administered a questionnaire survey to 144 principals of national and public kindergartens in Mie Prefecture with respect to their awareness of foreign substances in the airway, countermeasures taken in their kindergartens, and the willingness of teachers to enlighten such accidents. Although the principals had abundant knowledge about accidents caused by foreign substances in airways, their attention and instructions for foods, such as school meals and box lunches, in kindergarten were less adequate than those for toys. It was found that bean-throwing/eating is performed in the Setsubun ceremony (the day before the beginning of spring) in most kindergartens. Although virtually no kindergartens have enlightened the parents to date, many principles suggested that it would be proper to promote such enlightenment at the health check-up, hospital, and kindergarten, in this order. In the future, I will continue with such activities so that teachers of kindergarten, children and their parents will be more aware of the prevention of accidents caused by foreign substances in an airway.