First Aid Procedures for Babies & Children

I thought this might be a useful thread for most of us... even if you only skim through it quickly once, it might just refresh in your mind what is the best course of action to take, for emergencies and life threatening situations with our little ones.

All procedures and information here have been copied directly out of the Australian First Aid book, by St Johns Ambulance.

***This info is for refreshing information already gained at a first aid course, and not intended as a teaching guide***

In determining which resucitation technique to use, the age of the child needs to be considered. For resuscitation purposes children are classified as follows:
Infant: Newborn - 1 year.
Young Child: 1-8 years.


Expired Air Resuscitation (EAR)
To be performed when a pulse is detected but the child is not breathing.

Infant:
1. Support the infant's head. Cover infants mouth and nose with your mouth and give 2 gentle puffs of air from your cheeks, sufficient to make the infants chest rise.
2. After the initial 2 puffs, check the pulse. If there is a pulse but no breathing, continue to inflate the lungs at a rate of 20 times per minute.
3. Check the pulse about every minute.
Note: Infants pulse can be found on the inner upper arm(brachial pulse).

Young Child:
1. hold child's nose and give 2 gentle breaths into the mouth sufficient to make the childs chest rise.
2. After the initial 2 breaths, check the pulse. If there is a pulse but no breathing, continue to inflate the lungs at a rate of 20 times per minute.
3. Check the pulse about every minute.
Note: To check the pulse of a child (more than 1 year) check neck (cartoid) or wrist (radial) pulse, as for adults.

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
To be updated....

CHOKING

Infants and small children love to put things in their mouths. This can result in choking. Both toys and food may be responsible. Peanuts and hard sweets are especially dangerous for children under five.

Signs and symptoms
The child may be unable to breathe at all if the obstruction of the airway is complete. If the obstruction is partial, the child may be able to get some air in past the obstruction. Signs of a child choking include:
- having difficulty breathing
- trying to cry but making strange sounds or no sounds at all
- making a whistling or 'crowing' noise
- turning blue in the face
- collapsing or being unconscious

Management of Choking - Infant (to 1 year)

Check airway and breathing to assess blockage.

Partial Blockage:
1. Lie infant face down on your forearm with head low.
2. Support infant's head and shoulders on your hand.
3. Give 4 sharp slaps between shoulders.
4. Check in infant's mouth and remove any obstruction that may have come loose.
5. If blockage has not cleared call 000 for an ambulance.

Total Blockage:
1. Place infant face down on your lap.
2. Give 4 sharp slaps between shoulders.
3. Check for signs of breathing.
If still not breathing:
4. Give lateral chest thrusts by placing one hand on either side of the infant's chest below the armpits. Give up to 4 quick, squeezing thrusts on both sides simultaneously. (this means sqeezing/thrusting in an inwards direction ie. your hands moving towards each other)(its a bit hard without diagrams hey!)
5. Check in infants's mouth and remove any obstruction that may have come loose; check for breathing.
6. If blockage has not cleared call 000 for ambulance.
7. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until help arrives or blockage clears.

Management of Choking - Child (1-8 years)



Check airway and breathing to assess blockage.

Partial Blockage
1. Ask child to try to cough up obstruction.
2. If unsuccesful, place child in position with head low and face down (up-end or bend over yoru knee).
3. Give 4 sharp blows between the shoulderblades.
4. If blockage has not cleared call 000 for an ambulance.

Total Blockage
1. Place child face down on the floor or across your lap.
2. Give 4 sharp blows between the shoulderblades.
3. Check for signs of breathing.
If still not breathing:
4. Give lateral chest thrusts by placing one hand on either side of the child's chest below the armpits. Give up to 4 quick, squeesing thrusts on both sides simultaneously.
5. Check in mouth for any obstruction; check breathing.
6. If blockage has not cleared call 000 for an ambulance.
7. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until help arrives or blockage clears.

I have the best First Aid Book. It has a huge magnet on it so it lives on the frigde.
It has tabs that stick out, and you pull down the tab and all the emergency instructions you need are right in front of you.
This saves flicking thro a book, searching for what you need in the middle of an emergency.

We bought this at our MCHN office after the nurse organised the St John bloke to give us resus training.

Very scary to read and imagine having to do all of that stuff, but thanks for posting it. I will print it out and keep it on my fridge.

I attended a First Aid information discussion for babies and kids session by a guest speaker at an Australian breast feeding meeting and they gave us Fact sheets from Westmead Children's Hospital - I think they would be an excellent link to have here on a variety of safety topics.The Nurse said first recommedations change all the time and even they have to update some of there fact sheets.

However On Choking she told us

with a partial blockage

What to do if a young child chokes on food
Check first if the child is still able to breathe, cough or cry. If the child is breathing, coughing or crying, he or she may be able to dislodge the food by coughing.
Do not try to dislodge the food by hitting the child on the back because this may move the food into a more dangerous position and make the child stop breathing. Stay with the child and watch to see if their breathing improves.
If the child is not breathing easily within a few minutes, phone 000 for an ambulance.

If the child is not breathing
Try to dislodge the piece of food by placing the child face down over your lap so that their head is lower than their chest.
Give the child four sharp blows on the back just between the shoulder blades. This should provide enough force to dislodge the food.
Check again for signs of breathing.
If the child is still not breathing, urgently call 000 and ask for an ambulance. The ambulance service operator will be able to tell you what to do next

We had a first aid course at work today. An interesting thing to note is that they have changed the breath/compression ratio (yet again!)

It is now 2 breaths, followed by 30 compressions at the rate of 100 every minute (this corresponds to roughly two every second - essentially flat out!). This is used for adults, babies and children, just smaller breaths/puffs for babies, and softer compressions. Also, no such thing as 2 person CPR - they now recommend that each person works on their own for 2 minutes then alternates so that you actually get time to rest and recover.

I sincerely hope that nobody ever has to use this for their own child.

BW

I just re-read all this info. I pray I never have to use it, but it always helps to have it fresh in ones mind.

Good ~Bump~ Rachel!!!

The Australian Resuscitation Council has a flow chart showing the new rates if anyone would like a picture / step by step guide. It is a medical site but it has basic life support as well as advanced life support (more the medical stuff).

and as a side note you should all put 112 into your mobile phones as that is the emergency number from a mobile, even one with keylock on, or with little or no coverage, that number will hunt down the nearest tower on any carrier. 000 does work as well from a mobile, but it uses your carrier instead of the first it can find like 112 does

I've also been taught the 2 breaths, 30 compressions from an ambo through red cross