Most choking in children over one year of age is due to a foreign object caught in the throat. If the child can still talk or is coughing forcefully, do nothing. If the child is coughing weakly, making high-pitched noises, or is not moving air at all, you should do the Heimlich maneuver.

The Heimlich maneuver is a technique to force an object out of the airway by pushing on the abdomen to create pressure. This may force the object out of the airway much like a cork out of a cork gun. The proper technique has a number of steps. To learn this best you should take a short CPR course from the American Heart Association or the American Red Cross.

Here is a short summary of the main steps to take:
* Immediately call for an ambulance by dialing 9-1-1.
* If the child is standing, stand behind them. Put your arms around them, placing your fist above the navel. Put your other hand over your fist. Then make several strong thrusts upward into the child's abdomen.
* Repeat the thrusts until the object is dislodged, or until the child becomes unconscious (then ease them to the floor).
* If the child is unconscious and on the floor, kneel astride them and put the heel of one hand on the abdomen above the navel. Put your other hand on top of the first, and then thrust upward quickly several times.
* If the object is dislodged, remove it from the child's mouth.
* After you remove the object, check to see if the child begins to breathe. If they do not, begin mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing at the rate of one breath every three seconds. If you cannot breathe air into the child easily, making the chest rise and fall, there is still an obstruction. Return to abdominal thrusts.
* Continue until emergency help arrives.

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