Jake Massey
A mum has explained how to safely prepare the food that causes the 'most choking deaths' among children.
Nikki Jurcutz - who founded Tiny Hearts parental education company - shared a simple method that could help to avert a tragedy.
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The Aussie shares parenting advice on social media, and in a recent TikTok video she offered up some important food prep advice.
In the video, which has been viewed more than half a million times, Nikki said hot dogs 'cause more choking deaths than any other food'.
In the text on the clip, quoting Gary Smith - director of the Center for Injury Research, she wrote: "If you were to design the perfect plug for a child's airway, you couldn't do much better than a hot dog."
Holding up a hot dog with a tube, she demonstrated how easily the meaty snack could cause a blockage.
In order to reduce the risk presented by the sausage, she advised against slicing it into discs, instead cutting it lengthways.
In a follow-up video, she continued: "Even if it gets into your child's airway, it doesn't occlude the whole thing."
Of course, as a rule of thumb, cutting up food into smaller pieces can help prevent choking.
Nikki recently opened up about feeling sad after learning that her third child is a boy, in a bid to tackle the taboo and normalise 'gender disappointment'.
"It's a taboo topic for sure," she wrote in an Instagram post. "But last night 11k people admitted that they experienced it, whether it was a slight ohh or severe disappointment, and another 6k said they only didn't because they got what they wanted but otherwise would have.
"Thats more than 65 percent of people who answered, proving that it's a very real thing."
Sharing her own experience of gender disappointment, she explained why her family hoped her third baby would be a girl.
"We wanted a little girl, for many reasons and that's ok, and it's ok to feel sad that we are saying goodbye to that idea," she said. "The sadness you feel can coexist with excitement.
"We were sad that our little girl didn't get the dream of a little sister, that we couldn't give aunties, uncles and grandparents a girl, in a sea of boys.
"This disappointment absolutely coexists with love, joy and happiness to welcome a boy to our little gang in June."