A baby boy’s mum has told an inquest she “didn’t want to rock the boat” by raising concerns with nursery staff on the morning he choked before dying days later in hospital.

On the first day of nine-month-old Oliver Steeper’s inquest today, his mother, Zoe, told how she had found chunks of pineapple and cherry in his sick the week before the incident.

Mrs Steeper recalled an earlier conversation with staff at Jelly Beans Day Nursery in Kingsnorth, Ashford when she told them about her son’s food and she understood it would be puréed by the pre-school.

A jury sworn in at Oakwood House, Maidstone, this morning was told by Mrs Steeper: “I told her [the staff member] the majority of the food he eats is pureed, she told me that that would be fine because they had a blender and that his main food would be puréed.

“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.”

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.

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

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.”

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 to last 10 days, ending next Friday.

As well as the Jelly Beans staff, Mr and Mrs Steeper will give evidence, as will another parent of a child at the nursery, the doctor who carried out Oliver’s bronchoscopy and a representative from education watchdog, Ofsted.

Speaking at the end of the second pre-inquest review - setting out the format of the hearing - earlier this year, Oliver’s parents said they felt “no stone’s going to be left unturned” during the inquest.

Coroner Katrina Hepburn told the review the inquest will cover the background of Oliver’s “developmental stage, particularly regarding his feeding, to understand what on that day he could eat”.

It will also investigate staff training, preparation of food and deciding who was responsible for deciding what each child eats.

Similar to juries in crown courts, jurors listen to the evidence presented and decide the conclusion.

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".

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.

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