Riding in a car with little kids is always a challenge.
You’ve got to keep them entertained, but at the same time, safety is always front and center. Unfortunately, serious accidents still happen from time to time.
In June, a routine family trip to dinner in Tennessee quickly spiraled into every parent’s worst nightmare.
Sitting behind his dad
As a parent, there’s a lot to keep track of to make sure your child stays safe and protected. Most people would agree, though, that toys made for little ones should be safe — meant to entertain without causing harm. That’s something many of us take for granted.
But it was one toy in particular that nearly put 1-year-old Lachlan’s life at risk.
In June, 2025, Jordan and Rachel Flom were driving with their four young children, including toddler triplets and their 4-year-old daughter, when disaster struck.
Their 1-year-old son, Lachlan, was sitting behind his dad, playing with his Xonteus Telescopic Suction Cup Giraffe Toy — sold on Amazon — when he suddenly started acting strangely.
“I started to notice a [weird] noise coming from him,” Jordan told Newsweek. “It was almost like trying to clear his throat.”
Realized something was wrong
Thanks to a small dashboard camera aimed at the rear-facing car seats, Jordan and Rachel immediately realized something was wrong.
“Right away, just was kind of like, ‘Hey, babe, I think Lachlan is choking,’” Jordan said.
“So then we looked at it, and he started to look more panicked; his hands were going.”
Rachel quickly unbuckled her seatbelt to get a closer look, confirming their worst fear: Lachlan was choking.
The vehicle swerve off the road
“I slammed on the brakes as quick as I could … and instantly opened my door,” Jordan said. “I grabbed him, ran to the front of the car and put him on my forearm and just started hitting his back. [It] probably took … eight good hits, and then he did a big kind of throw-up cough and out came this little yellow piece.”
Hearing Lachlan cry was a wave of relief. Strangers pulled up behind the minivan after seeing the vehicle swerve off the road, but the crisis had passed.
Jordan shared the terrifying ordeal on Facebook, warning other parents about the dangers of toys that can easily come apart — and urging people to invest in cameras or mirrors to monitor children in the backseat.
“We almost lost one of the boys tonight!” began the post, which has now been shared over 14,000 times.
Huge response
The response to the post was huge, and in addition to thousands of shares, it also received 36,000 reactions and 5,300 comments.
“Totally understand. One of our triplets choked on a chunk of cheese and started turning blue, thank god hitting his back did the trick too,” one user commented.
An experienced CPR instructor added: “I’m so sorry this happened, I’m thankful he is ok. Praise God you were able to hear him and knew something was off. So if you [haven’t] already done so, please take a CPR class. It’s invaluable.”
Amazon’s answer
Amazon confirmed to Newsweek that the toy has been removed from their platform:
“Product safety is our top priority. We develop innovative tools to prevent unsafe products from being listed in our store, including robust seller vetting programs and advanced machine learning detection combined with expert human investigators. We continuously monitor our store, and if we discover a product was undetected by our proactive tools, we address the issue immediately, including the removal of unsafe or noncompliant products and outreach to sellers and manufacturers for additional information. The product in question has been removed while we further investigate its safety and compliance.”
Jordan was stunned by how many people owned the same toy.
“I think a lot of people buy that toy for little kids because it entertains them [and] it goes against the window, but they love to chew on that soft material, so that can come off,” he said. “We’ll never play with that one again.”
He also emphasized the importance of installing a child-facing camera, calling it “a small investment that could be lifesaving.”
“Our adrenaline took over, and I think back and it’s, like, there wasn’t one moment where we were thinking what to do; we were just doing it,” Jordan said. “If we would have been listening to loud music and not paying attention, it probably would have taken 30 seconds of not looking at him and not hearing him to arrive and then all of a sudden … see that we lost one.”
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