A childcare nurse has recalled the horrifying moment she realised a baby boy “gagged” on his food before later dying in hospital.

Inquest jurors were today told of the harrowing moments when Oliver Steeper began choking while being fed at the Jelly Beans Day Nursery in Ashford.

Fighting back tears at the witness stand, Nazia Begum said much of the events on the day were a “blur” in her memory.

It also emerged that Ms Begum and some of the other staff members’ paediatric first aid training, including the manager, was out of date and was a source of concern among colleagues at the nursery.

But the nursery’s manager Debbie Alcock told the court that while her own paediatric first aid training had lapsed, “over half the staff” had current and in-date paediatric first aid certificates.

Giving evidence, Ms Begum recalled she was sitting with four babies and fed Oliver cut-up penne bolognese.

She told the court: “[Oliver’s] food was already pretty finely chopped up, then I chopped it up more so they were a good size.

“I remember just giving him the little teaspoon of mince.

“He had inhaled a bit of mince.

“He gagged and gasped for two to three seconds, and then he gagged again and that’s when I realised something was wrong.”

Ms Begum said she then went into a state of shock.

Asked by co-workers to contact the emergency services, she said she was not able to bring herself to speak so another staff member called 999.

She went on to say that the nursery manager Debbie Alcock was alerted to the situation.

“Debbie ran out to the garden with Oliver in her arms, I think he was limp, she went and sat on a bench with him,” Ms Begum added.

“The paramedics were on the phone and Debbie got told to do breaths and said to me to check if his chest was rising - I can’t recall if it was or not.

“The paramedics arrived and took over straight away. Once they left with Oliver, I had a breakdown in the garden, I couldn’t move, I just wasn’t with it at all.”

The jury also heard from Debbie Alcock, who was manager of Jelly Beans at the time of Oliver’s choking incident.

Asked about what kind of food would have been appropriate for Oliver to eat, she said: “I would not have expected Oliver to have pureed food, I would expect them to have what I would call textured food - some lumps in their food to encourage them to accept those lumps, some finger foods like toast or banana.”

She then described events of the incident, starting when a panicked colleague told her: “I think Oliver is choking.”

“Loetta was with baby Oliver over her lap and she was giving him back slaps,” said Mrs Alcock.

“I asked if anyone had checked to see if there is any food in his mouth. They said that they hadn’t checked. I asked Haiga to check his mouth and she did, but not successfully.

“As she was checking, he bit down on her finger and out of reflex or whatever, she laughed, and at that point I took the baby because the child was clearly dying.

"I carried Oliver outside upside-down, which I accept is not a recommended practice.

“He was the most shocking colour of blue and purple that I’ve ever seen in a baby.

“I’ve never seen a baby’s face like that before.

“I carried him upside down into the garden for multiple reasons - one, to be able to hear him and so that I could be away from the staff and children who were still in the room.

“The other children obviously still needed to be cared for and I didn’t want the staff members to be staring at what was happening with Oliver.

“I turned him upside down so that it would dislodge any food that was stuck.

“I went and sat on the bench at the end of the garden.

“I turned him up the right way, his head was resting on my left forearm. I looked in his mouth to make sure it was clear of any food debris.

"There was a tiny piece of mince on his tongue which I took out.

“From taking him from Loetta, sitting on the bench, his colour had improved enormously, but still a blue tint around his mouth.

“I checked his breath and he’s not breathing on his own. I went to give him a breath and I couldn’t get the breath through to his lungs - there’s no chest rise.

“Because I’m not getting into any air into his lungs - and the context here is that I’ve never had to give CPR to a child before, I’m questioning whether I had done it right - I tried again and harder and sharper to try to get his chest to rise.

“When I picked him up from Loetta he was completely limp there was no sign of consciousness at all.

“I started cardiac massage CPR, again, not in the textbook way, but with the palm of my hand.

“I did this because he was on my lap, I can feel all his muscles, how he’s responding to everything I was doing.

“I may have asked her to ask how long I should be doing CPR for - I was desperate at that point for him to be helped.”

During her evidence on Monday, Oliver’s mother Zoe Steeper said she had understood that her nine-month-old would only be given puréed food.

Mrs Steeper recalled an earlier conversation with staff and told them while he had some solid food such as finger snacks, the majority of his food was puréed because they knew he could not properly chew yet.

She said staff told her that would be fine “because they had a blender and that his main food would be puréed”.

But at the hearing at Oakwood House in Maidstone - which is into its third day of a two-week inquest - Ms Begum said she could not recall having a detailed conversation with Mrs Steeper about Oliver’s food.

‘I checked his breath and he’s not breathing on his own. I went to give him a breath and I couldn’t get the breath through to his lungs - there’s no chest rise…’

“I didn’t really have a clear understanding of what he could have,” said the carer.

“I just remember having a general chat with Mrs Steeper but I don’t remember any specific information about what he could have.

“I usually had a general chat with all the parents, but if I wasn't the key person I wouldn’t go into too much detail because I knew that the key person would do that.”

In a statement she had previously given to police, Ms Begum said: “I don’t know how long he had been on solid foods, but [Mrs Steeper] said he would be fine with them and that he should try new things.”

Oliver started choking and was unable to breathe while eating following the incident on September 23, 2021 - the day he returned to nursery after he had been sick the previous week.

Mrs Steeper told the court this week she had found chunks of pineapple and cherry in his sick the week before the incident.

But in an emotional testimony, she admitted she “didn’t want to rock the boat” by raising concerns with nursery staff on the morning of the incident before saying: “I wish now I had.”

It was revealed today Ms Begum’s paediatric first aid certificate was a year out of date and had not received any updated training in the two years she had worked there.

She confessed other staff were aware their training was due to be updated but it had not been brought up by management.

Ms Begum, who had not had to carry out first aid or CPR on a child at the nursery before, said: “The staff [at Jelly Beans] were fully aware if it was running out or out of date, I hadn’t had any more additional first aid training while I was there.

“I didn’t really take any notice as to whether [the paediatric first aid qualification] had run out or not. It was up to the managers to make sure of that stuff.

“But the manager would say we’d rather get the students and the newer staff trained first and then get the other staff trained afterwards.”

Mrs Alcock added: “My paediatric first aid had lapsed as I didn’t normally work as a key worker or past as a ratio.

“Only one person in the entire nursery had to have current first aid training because legally, we only needed one member of staff with a current qualification.

“I personally don’t agree with that I prefer for everyone to be first aid qualified so I had planned on getting the staff members who didn’t have any qualifications to get certified first and then the staff members whose qualifications had lapsed to do theirs afterwards.”

Oliver died six days later at the Evelina Children’s Hospital in London.

The hearing was told on Monday that Mrs Steeper said on September 16, her baby was “unusually grouchy” which she and Oliver’s dad, Lewis, had put down to him picking up his first bug.

“We assumed it was 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.

“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 pureed 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.”

Bravely fighting back tears at times while giving evidence, Mrs Steeper recalled the morning she dropped off Oliver at nursery for the last time.

“I felt rushed because I knew that I was running late,” she said.

“We came out to the nursery when I got there, the lady I gave him to seemed quite stressed and busy.

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

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

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

The inquest is set to hear evidence from nursery school staff including two chefs.

Oliver’s parents have previously stated they believe there were “missed opportunities” in the way the incident was handled which could have saved their son’s life.

The coroner and jurors will hear from multiple witnesses over the course of the hearing which is scheduled end next Friday.

The Steepers have spoken openly about their experience of losing a child and have since had another son, Jake, in January 2023.

Speaking about their youngest boy later in the year, Mr Steeper said: “Initially when Oliver died it was hole in the house that we couldn’t fill.

“Now we’ve had Jake and he’s nine-months-old so he’s kind of filled that gap but Jake’s a spitting image of Oliver so it’s a constant reminder every day of Oliver not being there but we’re grateful that we’ve got Jake to continue our family.”

Following Oliver’s death, Ofsted closed Jelly Beans, in Field View, on a temporary basis pending a full investigation into “serious safeguarding concerns” in the lead-up to the incident.

However, parents and carers were later informed the owner of the nursery had voluntarily shut the facility down.

At the inquest opening in 2022, Oliver’s cause of death was given as a brain injury and cardio-respiratory arrest following "aspiration of foodstuffs during a choking episode".

In February 2023, a police investigation into the circumstances of the tragedy, which had been launched more than a year earlier, was closed.