Oliver Steeper inquest: Nine-month-old, who 'couldn't chew', may have been given non pureed food

Oliver Steeper’s mum, Zoe, has told an inquest that she was concerned her son’s food wasn’t being pureed by staff at the nursery he attended in Kent where he choked on food and later passed away.

Nine-month-old Oliver died six days after he choked on food and couldn’t breathe while in the care of Jelly Beans Day Nursery in Ashford on 23 September 2021.

On the first day of the inquest yesterday (13 May) at Maidstone Crown Court, Zoe Steeper said she found ‘chunks of pineapple in her son’s vomit and cherry when he was violently sick on 16 September.’

She was asked at the inquest if anyone at the nursery had sought her permission to start trying Oliver on non-pureed food. She said no.

Asked if her son had any previous history of choking, her response was no.

Mrs Steeper said that the ‘majority of his food at home was purees.’

Nursery staff assured parents food could be blended

The inquest heard how Oliver’s parents has been assured by nursery staff that solid food could be blended before being fed to him.

Zoe Steeper said, ‘At home, he was eating milk, smooth baby porridge, puréed lunch and dinner and finger food for snacks.

‘Oli had two little teeth that were coming through on the bottom. That made us extra cautious because obviously, he couldn’t chew.

‘They said they would puree the food that would be given to the children. On the menu it had spaghetti bolognese, we assumed that would be pureed.’

Mrs Steeper said on 16 September, Oliver was ‘unusually grouchy’ which she and Oliver’s dad, Lewis, had put down to him picking up his first bug.

‘We assumed he was poorly,’ said Mrs Steeper.

‘That evening he was quite violently sick. In the sick there were whole chunks of pineapple.

‘At first, we wondered how on earth he’d managed to eat them. I later realised that it must have been at the nursery.

‘It said on the app that he’d been given fruit salad.'

She went on to say, ‘We’d assumed that would have been pureed, obviously, when we realised it was coming out with bits of cherry and pineapple, it was clear that it hadn’t been and we had a discussion and I said I was going to speak to the nursery the following week.

‘My husband suggested I write an email. It seems silly now but I didn’t want to rock the boat, I didn’t want them to think I was being pushy.’

Mrs Steeper recalled the last morning she dropped Oliver off at nursery. She said she felt ‘rushed because she was running late’, and the lady she gave Oliver to seemed ‘quite stressed and busy.’

‘She didn’t rush me away but she kind of turned away and said okay, thank you’, she added.

‘I didn’t feel able that I could call her back and ask her about the pineapple. I wish now I had.’

Mrs Steeper said she received a phone call at about 11.30am the same day saying her son had choked on his lunch and was with paramedics.

‘[The paramedic] was running out with Oli in his arms doing chest compressions. I abandoned my car and ran,’ she said.

Oliver was taken to the William Harvey Hospital before being transferred to Evelina Children’s Hospital, in London, where he died.

The inquest, which is scheduled to last 10 days, is set to hear evidence from nursery staff, including two chefs, continues.

The coroner and jurors will hear from Mr and Mrs Steeper, another parent of a child at the nursery, the doctor who carried out Oliver’s bronchoscopy and a representative from Ofsted.