First Aid For Babies And Children

First aid is, without a doubt, one of the most important skills a person can learn in their life. As a parent, carer, colleague or educator, knowing how to help a child in distress or when there is an emergency is priceless.

What Is First Aid?

First aid is the process of taking immediate, skilled, certified action when someone needs help due to an injury, accident or is having a medical emergency.

Regardless of whether the patient is a baby, a child or an adult, first aid support strives to:

  • keep the patient alive and stabilised till medical services are in attendance,
  • stop further harm happening to them (from lashing out or from people unwittingly administering incorrect help) or
  • helping them recover.

When Is First Aid Needed?

First aid is a requirement if you are providing care for babies, children or adults with needs. Even when the best care in the world is available, accidents can still happen because humans create such huge variables.

First aid skills show their value in a range of situations, such as a child might:

  • Have a badly cut but home-treatable finger
  • Have an injury that requires medical intervention, e.g. a broken arm
  • Be unconscious, need monitoring and protection
  • Be in a life-threatening medical emergency, e.g. a severe asthma attack, drowning

Be A First Aid Super Hero

You donโ€™t need to be Clark Kent to save lives. You just need a first aid certification. In an emergency, an injured person has much higher odds of surviving if someone near them has First Aid Skills. While waiting for medics to arrive, using basic life support knowledge saves lives. Here is a helpful mnemonic to remember first aid steps: DRS ABCD.

  • Danger: Ensure the child, you & onlookers are safe. Onlookers should move far away.
  • Response: Does the child respond to you? If yes, make them comfortable & monitor them. If there is no response, immediately:
  • Send for help: Call 000 (triple zero) for an ambulance.
  • Airway: Open mouth. Check if there is something in their mouth. Place the child on their side while you use your fingers to clear their airway.
  • Breathing: Look, listen & feel for breathing. Onlookers must be quiet. Normal breathing? Put the child in the recovery position. No breath? Start CPR โ€ฆ
  • Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR): The pattern is thirty (30) chest compressions to two (2) breaths. Do not attempt this if you are not trained. You will injure the child. Continue until help arrives.
  • De๏ฌbrillation: If you are trained, you can consider applying a defibrillator if one is available and follow the instructions.

It’s also a good idea to have phone numbers handy, such as the numbers for:

  • Emergency services โ€” call triple zero (000)
  • Poisoning help โ€” call 13 11 26
  • Your doctor

Save a child today with training on a first-aid certificate course in Melbourne. Book now.

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