Tag Archives: children

child drowning

CPR Makes Big Difference in Child Drownings

Dougherty County emergency responders see near and accidental drownings involving children quite often this time of year. Sometimes three in one day. They say knowing how and when to give them CPR can shave precious minutes, and save lives.

“The quicker you can get blood circulation through an external compression, the better chance they have of survival,” said Dickie Livingston, who is the training and compliance Supervisor with Dougherty County EMS.

Just with any other procedure, there is a specific approach to address a child in distress. Learn child and infant CPR online.

“You come up on a child, say you pull them out of a swimming pool, you get them out, tap them, make sure they’re unresponsive, and you holler for help. You tell somebody to go call 911 bring an AED.”

Livingston says it’s okay to hold off on CPR until help arrives if the child starts coughing. But if he or she doesn’t, that’s when you start the chest compressions.

“You put your single hand in the middle of their chest. Upper third of the chest. Press down about two inches,” Livingston added.

You will need to compress hard and fast…at least one hundred times per minute.

“For every thirty compressions that you do, you stand and open their mouth, tilt their head back a little bit. So they don’t have any trauma, blow two breaths in their lungs,” explained Livingston. “Just enough to make the chest rise and immediately go back to chest compressions until help arrives, or until the patient becomes responsive.”

It can take between two and seven minutes for the CPR to be effective, until paramedics arrive on scene.

“And at that point, they’ll come in, they’ll start taking over, and start doing CPR, and we’ll get there, and we’ll start giving drugs and put them on the monitor and see what exactly’s going on with the heart and fix it from there,” added Livingston.

The CPR method should be the same for every child, regardless of their size and weight. It’s acceptable to use two hands, but larger adults may only have to use one.

“The biggest thing is you have to press down hard enough to mash the heart between the sternum and the spine. If it takes two hands, if you’re small, then you have to use two hands.”

Article Source: https://fox28media.com/news/local/proper-cpr-makes-life-and-death-difference-in-accidental-child-drownings

pool safety

CPR Can Help Victims of Drowning

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drowning is the No. 1 cause of unintentional death between ages 1 and 4, and the No. 2 cause between ages 5 and 9. The latest national data show 702 U.S. children under age 15 drowned in 2017.

The figures are not broken down by ethnic group, but minorities may be at even greater risk. The USA Swimming Foundation reports 64% of African American children and 45% of Hispanic children have low or no swimming ability, compared to only 40% of white children.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently updated its recommendations for preventing drowning in children, ranging from vigilance at bath time and emptying buckets and wading pools immediately after use to teaching children to swim and encouraging teenagers to learn CPR.

If a drowning emergency should occur, every second makes a difference.

When tragedy strikes, start by calling 911 immediately. Get the victim to a safe area and assess for signs of life. If they’re not breathing normally, start CPR.

For drowning victims, the American Heart Association recommends CPR with chest compressions and rescue breaths.

child first aid

CPR and First Aid Training Is A Must For Childcare Providers

Knowing how to care for the children if you work with them or if you have them at home is essential. Children are always prone to injuries that need attention. You need to be able to know what to do in case of certain injuries or illnesses. This means that you should be able to perform CPR on children and be able to take care of them just in case they become victims of injuries or even certain illnesses. If you don’t already know CPR, the good news is that you can get CPR Certified Online. You can even get First Aid Training online as well. Being trained in these two areas may help save a life.

The First Aid Skills You Should Know:

It has been reported that over 12,000 kids every year die from injuries such as drowning, poisoning, falls, burns, and incidents that arise from road traffic that are all preventable. A lot of overlap exists in the CPR and the first aid skills both for children and the adults. However, you should focus on a few skills and techniques that you should possess when providing care to the children.

The Heimlich Maneuver

Both adults and children can chock on food at times. However young children are constantly putting things into their mouth thus increasing the risk of choking from some of them. In such situation, you can perform Heimlich maneuver on the child do dislodging whatever they are chocking on. In this process, you put a sudden pressure between the rib-cage and navel on the abdomen.

CPR For Children

Rarely do kids require CPR but in the case where the child has a heart problem or even a chronic illness or even when a kid is drowning. You serve the role of a lifeguard if you are working with the kids in an aquatic environment or when you are working with the kids that have special needs which increase the chances of being vulnerable to cardiac arrest or other chronic illnesses. This makes it very relevant to possess CPR skills.

There exists a slight difference between the CPR for kids and that for the adults. In addition to CPR, studies indicate that kids do well with rescue breaths since their chests are shallower thus they require a shallower compression than that of the adults. When studying CPR, make sure that you take the training components available that focus on CPR for children. The training is worth considering if you spend time with the children mostly.

Burn Treatments

Often, children do not hesitate to grab hot pots, or to hold onto something hot in the kitchen. Most of the time, children have been seen to suffer from burns which makes them the most common forms of accidents among the children. When taking care of the kids, being aware of the first aid measures to take when a child suffers from burns is very essential. This is because, with the possession of such skills, you can be able to take care of the burnt kid until the arrival of the ambulance so that the kid can then be taken to the hospital.

Basic First Aid For Wounds

Children play rough most of the times which exposes them to wounds which at times may not be just scraped. It is relevant to understand the basic first aid skills for wounds in children which involve how to compress the wounds to stop bleeding, treat eye wounds, ice a swelling and also to deal with splinters to keep the child stable and also to create enough time for the emergency responders to arrive.

Treating Allergies

Nowadays, allergies are very common incidences both in adults and the children. Some children are severely allergic to some form of nuts, bee stings, as well as other things in the environment. It is necessary to be aware of the kind of allergy that the child suffers from. Also, it is necessary to possess the skills that can help you manage allergy in a child. Being aware of allergic reactions and how to handle the anaphylaxis as well as other life-threatening forms of allergy is very essential.

Treating Broken Bones And Sprains

Kids can break their bones in accidental incidences or even other traumatic events. Being aware of what to do to keep the child stable is very relevant since it creates enough time for the ambulance to arrive. Such skills can be acquired when one takes the CPR courses online or even being admitted to an institution that offers the same.

Asthma Care

There exist many kids who suffer from asthma, and it is not a wonder for kids to suffer from asthmatic episodes especially when the children do activities that strain their bodies or even in the event of stress. Acquiring skills to recognize when the kid is under asthmatic stress and how to manage it are essential.

Check our CPR Courses & First Aid Courses

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