The importance of First Aid knoweledge for parents

My sister and brother in law recently have attended a first aid training course for parents in their local area.  She suggested to me that I write a blog post on the importance of first aid knowledge for parents and how to access this information.  I thought this was a brilliant idea as it is really important when looking after babies and young children you are equipped with basic first aid knowledge whether your a child carer or a parent.

As a childcare practitioner I am legally required to hold a first aid qualification and renew this every three years and because of this and doing a few training courses over the years do hold the required knowledge.  However I am neither a medical professional or a qualified trainer so do not have the authority to dispense medical advice in this blog post.

Instead I am going to talk about why first aid training is important to parents and what information is out there to access.

In 12 years of childcare I have mainly come across everyday situations involving bumps and bruises.  So mainly seem to clean up a lot of scrapes and administer a lot of plasters basically!!  The most severe of cases I would say would be were I had to call 999 for a child with a suspected convulsion although this was never confirmed.  The child had previously had an ear infection and had been treated with antibiotics in which they had recently come off.  They started acting strangely when I was called into assess the situation.  Now the result of this situation was that the child was fine but myself and a colleague afterwards had to have a good cry in the staffroom!  I think dealing with a situation such as this requires running on adrenine but afterwards you feel emotionally drained and very upset.  On my first aid training the trainers have always stated that you do not know how you will respond to these situations and that's okay you just need to know what you need to do.  I was also lucky as I was surrounded by other first aiders but still what this child needed was a medical professional we could not of done a lot apart from ring 999. 

What's available in your area?

Obviously I can not write in this blog all courses that are available for every area of every country so I suggest using a search engine to find first aid for parents in your area.

This will bring up where and when there are suitable courses for you.  Please note that the course suits your needs as this qualification may be different to what is required to a work place qualification such as childminders and nannies require.

Why should I attend one of these courses?

First time parents and not first time parents would all benefit from attending a first aid training course.  Procedures and recommended advice changes often I find and a refresher is always a good idea!

As a parent you will find everyday situations such as your baby having solids for the first time to climbing in the park to not always be risk free.  I would be a rich woman if I had a £1 for every time a small piece of food has caused a slight obstruction to a child's breathing.  This can be very alarming and as a parent no doubt you may panic.  Very often this will resolve itself quickly and is common with weaning an infant and you will not have to carry out severe intervention.  But what if you did? Do you know what you would do?

This is an example of how you can benefit from doing first aid training and hopefully with the required skills may cause you to panic less!!

What do they cover?

Services such as St John Ambulance and British Red Cross will deliver the same training despite where you are but some training may have slight differences in different areas so always good to enquire prior to attendance.

Apps for your phone/tablet

Till speaking to my sister in law I had no knowledge of the following apps so decided to have a look at them to see how useful I thought they were.  They are both free and available on most app downloading stores.

British Red Cross

Screenshot of British red cross app

• I found this to be my preferred app of the two I researched. 
• The videos in the individual sections were good for reinforcing the theory knowledge and the diagram's shown and reminded me about what I had learnt in my first aid training. 
• The app also had prepare section which made me think about what I would do in not so everyday situation's. 
• There is a testing section to think about what you have learnt of to test any rusty skills that may not be used.

For more information follow this link redcrosstraining.co.uk

St John Ambulance

Screenshot of St John Ambulance app

• This app had lots of helpful information to reinforce my knowledge of the different areas of first aid training I had learnt.
• I like the different cateriories on the bottom making it very easy to navigate around the app and find what you are looking for.
• Bullet points are good to summarise information and keep it simple
• good differentiation of sections for what to do on an adult/infant/child

For more information follow this link   www.sja.org.uk

In summary my top tips are;

1. Find a local course near you
2. Download one of the above apps to refer back to when and if needed
3. Now your armed with the knowledge don't be frightened and remember children will always be children!!

Have you found this post useful? Anything else you would like me to point you towards?

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