He eats popcorn while watching TV and the next day the child is hospitalized because his body identifies popcorn as foreign bodies

by Shirley Marie Bradby

March 17, 2019

He eats popcorn while watching TV and the next day the child is hospitalized because his body identifies popcorn as foreign bodies
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One of the positive aspects of social media is the sharing of personal experiences, which can help other people to learn about important things before it happens to them. 

This is exactly why a mother decided to post on Facebook, her story about the personal inferno that she and family experienced, just because her 2-year-old son ate some popcorn one evening. 

Here's what happened and what we can learn from their experience.

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"I decided to share our experience because, while I was telling it, many people were shocked and surprised by the danger of popcorn," said Nicole Johnson Goddard, Nash's mother, the unfortunate child

Popcorn is tasty, cheap, has a low-calorie content and children love it. Therefore, popcorn seems to be the perfect afternoon snack or in the evening while watching a movie. And also Nicole had never thought that popcorn could be dangerous. 

"Last Saturday, we were all together watching a movie on TV. For our snack, we had chosen popcorn. Nash also ate it and nothing strange happened. The next day he had a slight cough, but I thought he had caught the same cold that everyone else in our house had."

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Nash, however, continued to cough and he was also running a fever. Then, his alarmed mother noticed that something was wrong with his breathing. 

At the hospital, Nash was subjected to a chest x-ray and the doctor noticed and highlighted something at the level of the lungs and wanted to continue the exam using a bronchoscope. 

The doctors then decided to operate because they discovered that in little Nash's lungs, there were some of the kernels of popcorn he had eaten the night before. Nash's body had produced pus due to identifying the popcorn kernels as foreign bodies and this had caused a strong inflammation. 

It took two surgical operations to remove all the popcorn kernels and Nash was discharged from the hospital only after recovering his good health. 

Serious inflammations like these can be fatal for such small children. This story could have been much worse and, although his parents are very happy to have Nash in their arms again, their concern is that the same thing can happen to some other child. 

Please note that popcorn is not suitable to be eaten by children under 5 years of age. We have to be very careful about what food we give small children to eat. If there are any doubts, it is better to contact a trusted pediatrician. It is certainly worth it to save the life of our little ones!

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