Cheree Lawrence almost lost her daughter after giving her popcorn. She prepared some snacks to settle down with and watch TV at home with her daughters, but what was to be a nice afternoon in front of the TV turned out to be a nightmare.
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Little Sophie started choking on her popcorn and they had to go to the ER. At first, Cheree gave her daughter some water in the hopes that the jammed kernel would become dislodged and go down her throat properly. She thought it had passed and everything was fine, but half an hour later, she noticed that her little girl was still not breathing normally.
She rushed her daughter to the hospital where she was given steroids, adrenaline and Ventolin to help her breathe. Cheree told the doctors about the incident but they ruled out that it had anything to do with respiratory problems because Sophie was responding quite well to the treatment.
A few weeks later, the girl was still experiencing breathing problems and doctors diagnosed her with pneumonia and inflammation on her lung. They gave her a chest X-ray and when the specialists saw the results, they immediately intervened.
The popcorn that she had choked on had caused an infection because it had got stuck and decomposed inside her body.
Cheree didn’t know that popcorn was so dangerous for children under 5 years old. After her unfortunate experience, she is now trying to warn parents to be very careful with these snacks and not give them to their young children, just in case.
