Keep your child safe,
get trained

All injuries have one thing in common: they are preventable

By Sharilyn Amy



It’s every parent’s worst nightmare: while eating breakfast in his highchair, your child begins to choke on a piece of food… his face turns dark purple, his lips blue. As you frantically unbuckle his safety belt, your mind races. Do you know what to do?

This happened to a new mother who had recently taken her Red Cross First Aid course. Her 7-month-old was starting on simple foods, happily gumming a baby biscuit. The mother turned her head to clear the table and upon turning back noticed the baby was choking. She pulled the infant from the highchair, supported her child on her arm and administered back blows between the shoulder blades, as she had learned in the course. The lodged piece of biscuit came free immediately.

“We know that injury is still the leading cause of death for children from birth to age 14, yet recent research indicates that caregivers have limited first aid skills or knowledge,” says Tracey Braun, National Coordinator of First Aid for the Canadian Red Cross. “A recent Ontario study showed that 98 per cent of children who suffer cardiac arrest die. It points out that bystander CPR training would help reduce this mortality rate.”

The Canadian Red Cross Child Care First Aid & CPR program is an ideal training program for parents and caregivers. This dynamic 8 or 16 hour course focuses on CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation combines rescue breathing with chest compressions to keep the heart circulating oxygenated blood) and choking prevention as well as how to administer immediate first aid in the critical moments after an injury. All the key skills needed by parents or caregivers to ensure children in their care are safe and have access to well-informed first aid care if required.

As a paramedic, Stacy Goulder, Medical Training Coordinator for City of Calgary Emergency Medical Services, saw first hand that proper first aid training makes a significant difference to the outcome of childhood injury.

“More often than not, when we’re on a choking call for a young child, the parents do not have first aid training,” says Goulder. “The situation goes quickly from a non-life threatening issue that can be addressed by parents with proper training to a life or death emergency – and at times like that, where seconds count, it becomes frustratingly obvious that we need to ensure all parents have First Aid and CPR training.”

Goulder emphasizes first aid or CPR skills properly administered to a child typically leads to a positive outcome.         
Much of the course training focuses on the most important life-saving skill of all: prevention.

A critical step
“The most important way to keep children healthy and safe is to realize that all injuries are preventable,” Braun clarifies. “It’s important to make a child’s environment safe to limit potential injuries.”

Goulder concurs. “Often when I’ve responded to a call where a child has been seriously injured, it’s obvious that people are not thinking ahead about what can happen. Assume when your child is riding a bike, she’ll fall and hit her head. Have her wear a helmet. Assume your child will test the screened window on the second floor. Ensure it’s properly secured so he won’t sustain serious injury from a fall. All injuries are preventable.”

1. Keep choking hazards away from children under age 4, including small foods, toys and other small objects
   
   
2. Secure pools and other bodies of water behind self-closing, self-locking gates. Children can drown in as little as 5 cm of water by taking one startled breath that draws fluid into their lungs
   
   
3. Use appropriate, well-fitting safety sports equipment
   
   
4. Have access to a properly stocked first aid kit www.redcross.ca/storefront
   
   
5. Most importantly, get trained. Learn how to prevent injuries and to think, react and improvise in emergency situations from the world leader in First Aid.

Training programs
The Red Cross provides the Child Care First Aid & CPR program through Authorized Providers across the country. The course includes group discussion, demonstrations, role plays, short lectures and lots of hands-on practice. Participants receive an illustrated, easy-to-use reference manual full of useful information upon completion.

In addition to Child Care First Aid & CPR, Red Cross offers a wide variety of First Aid training courses for children and youth including PeopleSavers and the Babysitting Course; and CPR, Emergency and Standard First Aid for adults.

H&L

To contact your local Red Cross office call 1-800-365-3226 or visit www.redcross.ca/firstaid to find your closet Authorized Provider.