2025 Volume 46 Issue 2 Pages 77-82
Fatal suffocation accidents at mealtimes continuously occur in children, thus making it necessary, especially for child-rearing facilities, to implement preventive measures. We conducted an investigation of the workers at all public nursery schools and child centers in Tsu City, Mie Prefecture, regarding their necessary work, problems, and training to prevent suffocation accidents at mealtimes in child-rearing workplace, and obtained answers from 113 workers.
When asked about procedures they can perform with confidence during a suffocation accident, 58.4% of the subjects mentioned the back blow method, 16.8% mentioned the Heimlich maneuver, and 24.8% mentioned cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Over 80% considered that opportunities to learn such procedures would be necessary, while 40.7% hoped for individualized coaching for all workers, and 53.1% hoped to receive such training annually.
As measures to prevent accidents during lunchtime, they reported paying careful attention to the following factors: observation by multiple workers (83.2%); support appropriate for each child’s eating style (85.8%); and serving methods tailored to individual children (78.8%). However, more than 50% of those workers could not prevent such accidents due to excessive workloads, an insufficient number of nursery workers, and the challenges of handling of children with allergies.
Improving the work environment of nursery workers and providing them with sufficient practical training are thus considered to be important for preventing suffocation accidents at mealtimes in child-rearing facilities.
