When my DS8 was a year old, I saw him picking something off of the floor and putting it in his mouth. I went over to get it out, and he clamped his mouth shut and shook his head from side to side so I couldn't get it out. It went down his throat and he got choked...I turned him upside down on my knee and pounded on his back like your supposed to, it was horrible, his lips turned this purple-ish blue color and all of a sudden he coughed and started breathing. But, nothing came out of his mouth. He swallowed whatever it was. I called the pediatrician, who said, as long as he was acting normally now, hes ok.
Well, it was Halloween so I took my two other boys trick-or-treating and my mother came over to watch the baby. When we got back, she said, something isn't right, when he cries or lays down he holds his breath--and he was not a "breath holder." I was really bothered by this, even though my now ex-husband thought I was being "overprotective". So I decided to tak him to the emergency room. I really expected to leave there with a huge bill and feeling like an idiot! They did a chest X-ray and they saw something lodged in the opening of his lung! Apparantly, he could get air in, but it couldnt come out. They showed us the X-ray and you could see how it was pushing over to the other side.
They asked us, what could he have swallowed, a toy, what? I had no idea because I kept small toys put up, floors cleaned etc. They called in their heart surgeon to come in and go down his throat to try and pull this thing out....and they weren't even sure they had surgical pieces small enough for his throat. After being in surgery an hour, the doctor finally came out and told us after numerous tries, he said a prayer and thought, I am going to try one last time, if I cant get it out, we will have to send him to Louisville....and he got it out! It was a small rock, the size of a pencil eraser! It must have come off or out of one of his brothers shoes. He was in the hospital in intensive care for a day just for observation, and today he is fine....I just shudder to think if I had laid him to bed that night, I don't think he would have ever woken up. It was horrible!
I always operate under the philosophy of "Better Safe than Sorry" with my children and if I have the feeling something isn't right, I get it checked out because you never know.