Choking is the fourth leading cause of unintentional death in children under the age of 5 and while children can choke on anything from a household item to toys, food is the most common cause of nonfatal choking. Almost every parent has experienced a scary moment when their child has begun to choke on something, and after Brett Cole's 5-year-old son choked while eating a lollipop he's hoping to have the sugary treats banned!

Cole said that his five-year-old son Bobby "went floppy" and passed out after the lollipop he was eating became dislodged from the stick and the candy stuck in his throat, according to Plymouth Live. Brett says he doesn't normally allow his kids to eat lollipops but made an exception after he received one for Halloween. We've seen a couple of things before about lollies, so we don't normally give them to our children," Brett told the news site. "But they had been given a few in their Halloween sweets and they had been good and asked to have them, so we let them. My wife was sat next to Bobby on the sofa and he just started choking on it," he said.

Brett stated that as his wife yelled for him to help, he quickly reacted and tried to dislodge the candy. "Deanna shouted for me and I hit him hard on the back, to no effect," he said. "He passed out and he went floppy. My wife gave him the Heimlich maneuver and after several thrusts, it came out with sick and blood."

Brett shared his story on Facebook, pleading with other parents to ban lollipops after his scary incident. After describing the harrowing event, Brett wrote, "Please guys take this from me ban these Lolly’s, I never post on Facebook but please take my advice. We have all cried our eyes out but bobby is ok, he may not have been. BOBBY is 5 and I stupidly thought this was old enough. I won’t make that mistake again, make sure you don’t!"

Brett's post has gone viral, with thousands commenting on Brett's Facebook post agreeing about not giving lollipops to young children. Of course, others have chimed in and commented that young children can choke on any number of things which is why supervision and preparation are important. "How is this grounds to ban lollys??" wrote one commenter. "Glad he's OK but if we banned every food anyone has ever choked on we'd all starve!" Another person commented that lollipops "Should of been banned years ago."

While we're not sure a lollipop ban will happen, this is an important lesson for parents that younger children are still at risk of choking and if you think a food isn't safe to eat, it may be best to skip it altogether.

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