Bethany Holden, 29, claimed her son “stopped breathing for two minutes” and “nearly died” after he chocked on sweets from Aldi – the mum believes a change needs to be made
A mum feared her toddler was dying in her arms when he “stopped breathing for two minutes and turned blue” after choking on a sweet from Aldi.
Bethany Holden said she gave her 16-month-old son Brody McAllister chewy ‘Dino Gems’ sweets she’d bought from Aldi, on October 22. The mum said she gave her little boy the sweets after dinner, as a dessert, but after finishing half the packet Brody turned silent – it was only then his frantic parents said they realised the 16-month-old was choking.
The stay-at-home mum, 29, began patting his back before partner Stefan McAllister began delivering back blows to help clear Brody’s airways.
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Bethany said Brody, however, was still left gasping for air as she claims he turned blue and his eyes began bulging from his head. The terrified mum carried her 16-month-old to her medic neighbour’s house, who gave him four more back blows before he let out a startled cry.
The mum-of-three rushed Brody to hospital where luckily doctors found no internal damage, but the incident left Bethany questioning the safety of the product. Bethany, from Oxford, claimed the packaging on the £1.09 Dino Gems sweets doesn’t contain any advice on age restrictions and should be labelled for ages three and up.
The mum said: “He’s had them before and so have my other children. There’s actually no age [guidance or restrictions] on the box. He’d had about half the packet. He was laughing but then started going red and completely silent.
“I quickly went to the chair and started patting his back, but nothing was happening. Then my partner took over but nothing was happening so he started with the back blows. At this point it had been about 40 seconds and I realised this wasn’t normal, he started going blue.”
She added: “[My neighbour] immediately took Brody off his dad and also started doing the back blows. Then his eyes started bulging out. I was really panicking, I’d never seen anything like this before.
“You start to think ‘are they going to die?’ I was thinking the worst. Next door did about three or four back blows, then he coughed and started crying. Hearing the cry was such a relief. It was the biggest relief. I’ve never seen anything so terrifying. He didn’t breathe for two minutes.”
After returning home, Bethany was shocked to discover there was no age restriction on the packet, and believes the product should only be deemed suitable for ages three and above. She said: “I went home and the first thing I did was check the age on the packet, I would never give him anything that wasn’t suitable for his age. I thought they’d be absolutely fine. There needs to be a three plus age restriction because they don’t dissolve in the mouth, they need to be chewed.”
Aldi said it was sorry to hear about what had happened. It said that, while the packaging meets all ‘required labelling regulations’, it had taken Bethany’s feedback on board. The mum said the supermarket had contacted her to discuss changing the product’s packaging.
An Aldi spokesperson said: “We were very sorry to hear about Ms Holden’s experience and are glad to hear her son has since made a full recovery. While our products meet all required labelling regulations, we have taken Ms Holden’s feedback on board regarding the packaging of this product.” The Mirror has reached out to Aldi for comment.
