Free tool · Scarlet Beast
When someone is choking
For anyone beside someone who is choking, at a table, in a kitchen, at a daycare or at home alone, and for anyone who wants to be ready before it happens. An adult or a child who can’t breathe, cough or speak. A baby under one. Coughing hard, but still breathing. When they stop responding. Pregnancy, or someone you can’t reach around. Choking when you’re alone. After a scare. Food, toys and small things for young children. Older people, and trouble swallowing. Where the sources differ. And the words to tell a doctor, or whoever looks after a child. No quiz and no score. One thing at a time.
Right now
- Coughing hard, or can talk? Let them cough and stay with them. The American College of Emergency Physicians says: if the person can speak, cough or breathe, do not interfere.
- Can’t breathe, cough, speak or cry, or turning blue? Call 911, or have someone call, and act now.
- Adult or child over one: stand behind them, a fist just above the navel, your other hand over it, quick thrusts in and up. For a child, the 2025 American Heart Association and American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines alternate 5 back blows and 5 abdominal thrusts. Pregnant, or you can’t reach around: chest thrusts.
- Baby under one: no abdominal thrusts. 5 back blows, then 5 chest thrusts, and repeat.
- Goes limp or stops responding: lower them to the ground, start CPR, and take out only what you can see in the mouth.
- Alone and choking? Call 911 even if you can’t speak, then press your belly hard against the back of a chair, or use your own fists.
- Thinking about ending your life, or about hurting yourself? Call or text 988, at any hour.
More help
- Swallowed a button battery, a magnet, or something else? When it might be a poisoning.
- Collapsed, and not because of choking? When it might be a heart attack. Hard to breathe, with wheezing? When it’s hard to breathe. Swelling of the lips, tongue or throat after eating? When it might be a severe allergic reaction.
- Bleeding or burned? When someone is bleeding and When someone is burned.
- A new baby at home? Pregnancy and a new baby. Looking after someone older? When you’re caring for someone.
- Can’t afford a doctor? When you need a doctor and can’t pay.
- All our free tools and Get help now.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). The facts come from pages read on October 2, 2026: the American College of Emergency Physicians (Learn the Heimlich Maneuver); the National Safety Council (Choking Prevention and Rescue Tips); the American Academy of Pediatrics on HealthyChildren.org (Choking Prevention for Babies and Children, and its news page on the 2025 American Heart Association and American Academy of Pediatrics CPR guidelines); Nemours KidsHealth (Choking, and Preventing Choking); the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Choking Hazards, in Infant and Toddler Nutrition); the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (Small Parts Ban and Choking Hazard Labeling); Safe Kids Worldwide (Choking and Strangulation Prevention Tips); MedlinePlus, from the U.S. National Library of Medicine (the summaries of Choking and of Swallowing Disorders); and the American Heart Association (Hands-Only CPR). The descriptions of the 988 Lifeline and Crisis Text Line are from their own front pages, read the same day. The American Red Cross’s choking pages and the Mayo Clinic’s first aid page refused our request, so neither is used. We did not read the 2025 guidelines themselves (only the news page about them), any guideline for adults, any CPR or first aid course, or any page on choking with dementia, after a stroke, or with a feeding tube; where the page touches one of these, it says so. We did not call any number. Where two sources say different things, the page reports each: back blows for a child, how many thrusts, a baby’s chest thrusts, what to do if you have not been trained, fingers in the mouth, what to do when someone stops responding, and the age for risky foods. The page has no questionnaire and gives no score, on purpose. It quotes no named person and gives no figures for how many people choke; the sources have them, with their context. The ages, counts and sizes on the page are the sources’ own. Lines marked “Ours” are our own suggestions. This page saves nothing: no account, no cookies, nothing you tick is stored or sent, and no analytics (privacy). Scarlet Beast is not a clinic or a first aid trainer, and takes no money from anyone named here. Found a mistake? Email [email protected].