What should I do if I accidentally swallow a foreign object while at home? Tongren Hospital expert support

Every year around the Dragon Boat Festival, Beijing Tongren Hospital’s Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Emergency Department will receive many patients with esophageal foreign bodies who accidentally swallow jujube pits. During the stay at home, eating, drinking and drinking are indispensable. The doctor of Tongren Hospital reminded that if you accidentally swallow a foreign body, swallowing food hard to try to choke or drink vinegar is not advisable.

Tongren Hospital otolaryngology head and neck surgeon Xuan Lijia takes eating jujube as an example: when eating jujube, you should break the jujube apart, remove the core, and then eat the meat. Especially in the elderly, the pharyngeal reflex is poorer than that of the young, the swallowing function is decreased, and the pain of loose teeth often reduces chewing, and it is not easy to separate the jujube pit, causing foreign bodies to be swallowed whole. And young people eat jujube while chasing dramas, or chat and laugh with their family members, or they may accidentally swallow the jujube core.

In patients with certain neurological diseases, such as the sequelae of cerebral infarction or cerebral hemorrhage, the nerve center is damaged, and normal chewing and swallowing cannot be performed, resulting in foreign bodies in the esophagus. What’s more noteworthy is that these patients are often accompanied by impaired language function, cannot express their discomfort accurately, and are easily ignored by their family members, so they are often found after a period of stuck, resulting in perforation infection. Children are immature, a jujube is placed in the mouth, and the jujube pit cannot be distinguished.

“Of course, foreign bodies in the esophagus are not limited to jujube cores, but also fish bones, bones, etc.” Xuan Lijia suggested that you should chew and swallow slowly when eating, young people should not slip away, don’t laugh, and have bad teeth It is best for the elderly not to eat foods with many cores and bones, and try to clean up the bones and cores of fish bones and cores when feeding children.

What should I do if I accidentally swallow a foreign object? Do you choke after eating a steamed bun, or drink vinegar to “soften” it? Doctors remind that it is wrong to swallow food hard to try to choke or drink vinegar. Because, swallowing forcefully downward is easy to cause esophagus damage and perforation; if the esophagus is scratched by drinking vinegar, it will aggravate esophageal mucosal damage. “These improper practices will make future treatment more difficult.”

The correct way is : When you feel that the foreign body is stuck, try to maintain a comfortable neck position and come to the hospital immediately. “If you are in quarantine, please contact your community, and the community will help you contact the hospital and arrive at the hospital as soon as possible.” Xuan Lijia reminded.