Justin Morrice has a warning for parents: Read the fine print on baby food labels.
The Canadian dad penned a now-viral Facebook post about how his 10-month-old daughter, Annabelle, began choking on August 21 while eating Gerber Lil’ Crunchies, a snack meant for children who have reached the developmental milestone of crawling.
“She was trying to cry but no sound was coming out,” Morrice shared. As Annabelle’s lips began to turn blue, “I thought my little girl was going to die in my arms,” he wrote. Luckily, the infant CPR-trained father was able to dislodge the puff from Annabelle’s throat.
Once Morrice calmed down, he was able to make sense of what had occurred. “I was confused as she ate them days before with no problem,” he wrote. “After scanning the can my mom found this ‘warning’ in tiny letters … to throw contents out after 5 days of breaking the seal.”
When the 35-year-old branch manager opened a new container, he could not believe the difference. “The ones in the can she choked on I can only describe to be like a foam ear plug …. the ones in the new can crumbled with ease.”
He added: “This is not a post to degrade Gerber in any way. So many products post warning labels but … you can get lazy as parents.”
His post has been shared more than 33,000 times.
“I hope it keeps going and makes every parent aware,” Morrice tells Us Weekly.
Though Morrice’s story has a happy ending, he is still haunted by what happened. “I’m angry that I almost lost daddy’s girl to a cheesie,” he tells Us. “I still see her face as she tried to cry. She was so scared and helpless.”
In an August 31 statement to The Huffington Post, Gerber commended Morrice for emphasizing the importance of supervising children while eating and reading product labels. “As part of our process to continually improve, we consider consumer input when we design our products, labels and educational materials,” the statement read. “We will include this feedback into that ongoing process.”
