Simple Tips for Relieving Fishbone Choking

Typically, when consuming fish dishes, we are accustomed to removing and filtering out fishbones before eating. However, due to inadvertence or negligence, some small fishbones may be overlooked during chewing, swallowing, and get stuck in the throat, causing pain and panic for the person eating.

Fortunately, dealing with fishbone choking is quite common, and there are various remedies available. By applying these methods, you can quickly address fishbone choking at home without the need for medical assistance.

What to Do When Choking on a Fishbone? Handy Tips for Treating Fishbone Choking Using Chopsticks, Honey, Garlic, and More - Simple and Easy

Simple Home Remedies for Fishbone Choking

1. Symptoms of Fishbone Choking

When experiencing fishbone choking, with larger bones, you may feel or see it when opening your mouth wide. However, with small fishbones lodged deep in the throat, it's challenging to spot. In such cases, you may identify fishbone choking through the following symptoms:

- Sensation of something stuck in the throat
- Throat pain, difficulty in swallowing water, saliva, or food
- Dry cough or coughing up blood.

2. Some complications that may occur when choking on a fishbone

Small fishbones lodged in the throat can cause pain when swallowing or damage to the throat's lining and esophagus. More seriously, fishbones can lead to organ bleeding, infections, constriction, or perforation of the esophagus,...

3. Handy tips for treating fishbone choking

When faced with fishbone choking, there are simple folk remedies within the community that you can apply at home without the need for hospital intervention.

An overview of common methods for treating fishbone choking includes:

- Strong coughing
- Using acidic foods like lemon, vinegar, orange,...
- Using garlic
- Treating fishbone choking with olive oil
- Treating fishbone choking with banana, rice, pennywort,...
- Treating fishbone choking with chopsticks for rice
.....

2.1. Strong coughing

When dealing with fishbone choking, most bones tend to get lodged around your throat or tonsils. Powerful coughs from within can exert pressure, dislodging these bones outward.

Simple remedies for throat fishbone, easy to implement

2.2. Using acidic foods like lemon, vinegar, orange,..

Lemon, vinegar,..., are acidic foods. Therefore, when dealing with fishbone choking, you can sip small amounts of vinegar or lemon water to soften the bones, making them easier to flow down to the stomach.

To reduce the sour taste of lemon water or vinegar, before using, you can dilute the mixture with honey. This is also how many people use honey to treat fishbone choking.

2.3. Swallow Orange Peel or Vitamin C

Swallowing small pieces of orange peel or Vitamin C tablets is a safe home remedy for fishbone choking, widely practiced by many. The vitamin C content in these foods helps soften the bone, making them quickly flow down with saliva to the stomach.

To follow this method, you need to suck or chew on a small piece of orange peel, letting its properties flow into the throat to soften the bone. Then, you can swallow the entire peel fragment to further soften it. (Do the same with Vitamin C tablets)

2.4. Treating Fishbone Choking with Olive Oil

Olive oil is a natural lubricant. So, if you're experiencing fishbone choking and exploring home remedies, try swallowing 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil. However, before consuming olive oil, you need to identify the bone's location in the throat to adjust the amount of oil ingested, ensuring it covers the throat's mucosa. This helps soften the tissues in the throat and allows the bone to dislodge outward.

Tips for treating fishbone choking in children with olive oil

2.5. Using Soda Water, Coca-Cola

If you're struggling with fishbone choking and unsure of what to do, drinking soda or Coca-Cola is an effective remedy you can use. When these carbonated beverages enter your stomach, they release gas, causing reflux to the throat. This gas can generate pressure to dislodge the bone outward.

2.6. Tips for Treating Fishbone Choking with Garlic

In cases where the above home remedies for fishbone choking have been attempted but the bone still can't be removed, you can consider using the garlic method. This is a common folk remedy, widely employed by people in rural areas.

Procedure:

- Identify the location of the fishbone (left or right side)

- Peel the garlic into small cloves and insert it into the nostril on the opposite side. For example, if the fishbone is on the right side, insert the garlic into the left nostril.

- Cover the left nostril with your hand and breathe evenly through your mouth to allow the garlic to flow down to the stomach.

Learn how to treat fishbone choking with garlic

2.7. Swallowing rice or a large piece of banana

Practical experience shows that swallowing small pieces of rice or a large piece of banana helps pull the trapped fishbone in the throat down to the stomach.

To implement this home remedy for throat fishbone choking, tightly grip the rice into small pieces, hold them in your mouth for a while to moisten with saliva, then slowly swallow them down the throat. Soft foods with good adhesion to fishbones, such as rice, banana,...., are also safe and effective remedies for fishbone choking in children.

2.8. Tips for treating fishbone choking with chopsticks

This is also one of the simple tips for treating fishbone choking widely passed down in the community. The execution is straightforward—when you discover a fishbone stuck in your throat, just grab a pair of chopsticks in front of you and flip your head upside down.

With this trick, the fishbone in the throat can quickly reverse and slide down.

In addition, with the rice chopsticks, there is another traditional method for this trick, which involves gently tapping the top of the head of the person with the fishbone.

However, for these methods, these tricks to be effective, you need to perform these actions completely naturally, without letting the person with the fishbone know that you are treating them.

Flipping the head with chopsticks, a handy tip for treating fishbone choking

2.9. Eating and swallowing fresh purslane

Another method to alleviate the concern of fishbone choking is to eat and swallow fresh purslane. To execute, clean the fresh purslane, chew it thoroughly, and swallow. The strands of fresh purslane reaching the throat can wrap around the fishbone, helping them both to slide down.

If you have tried the methods, tricks for treating fishbone choking above but still cannot remove the fishbone, it's advisable to visit a hospital for assistance from medical professionals.

4. Tips to Avoid Fishbone Choking

Besides the causes of fishbone choking due to the negligence of the eater, certain groups such as the elderly, children, individuals with alcohol intoxication, etc., are more prone to fishbone choking than others.

To minimize the risk of fishbone choking, it's best not to be careless when chewing or swallowing small fishbones. Additionally, for those susceptible to fishbone choking, help them inspect and remove fishbones before eating. Choosing fish with fewer bones, such as tuna or salmon, is also a perfect option.

For a simpler, happier life, along with referring to the above fishbone choking remedies, you can also explore family tips in this household tips ebook. Download, read, and remember the ebook's content to gain experiences, skills, and tips for home care, health improvement, and effective work.

Here, Mytour has shared with you the symptoms of fishbone choking along with some simple, scientifically and traditionally proven methods to treat it. We hope these remedies for fishbone choking will be helpful to you.