LAKEWOOD, Wash. -- A Lakewood mother said she found a half-inch long industrial staple in her son's Gerber pasta, reported KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.

Beth Bentley said her son Dominick is like many kids and hates to eat vegetables, so she started feeding him Gerber Graduates.

On Dec. 7, Bentley said she opened a can to serve her son his lunch, and three-fourths of the way through the can, he started choking.

"I started beating on his back, grabbed it out of his mouth, and found something hard," said Bentley.

Bentley said she found a staple in the back of the 3-year-old's throat and immediately took her son to the doctor.

Dominick was OK, but Bentley said she was disturbed by what the doctor told her could have happened had her son swallowed the staple.

"His doctor said it could cause bowel obstruction and bowel tear. It could cause a lot of problems," said Bentley.

Bentley said she called Gerber. The response she received from Gerber acknowledged that the object was a staple in the product, but offered no explanation and said the company never had the problem before, Bentley said.

Not satisfied with Gerber's response, Bentley then contacted KIRO News.

KIRO contacted Gerber and has not yet received a response, but found another story on the Web site consumeraffairs.com about a staple in Gerber baby food.

"I'm not looking to get rich off this. I want babies to be safe," said Bentley.

Bentley said she wants to make sure that the company takes the proper steps to make sure it doesn't happen again.