First Aid For Children
Help your child or friend!
First steps: ascertain what's wrong.
Flick an infant's foot or ask a child if they are OK. If they respond, call 911 and communicate with the child about what happened. If they don't, call 911 and roll them faceup, opening the airway (see image). If they aren't breathing, give 2 rescue breaths.
Now that you know what's wrong, it's time to do something about it.
If the 911 responder gave you any instructions, follow those. Otherwise, here are some instructions if you know what happened or need to act fast.
Unconscious Choking
Give another rescue breath, then 30 chest compressions, then another two rescue breaths. Remove the object if visible and repeat.
Conscious Choking - Infant-specific
In this situation, you want to give 5 back blows between the shoulder blades and then 5 chest thrusts (using 2 fingers to compress the breastbone 1.5 inches). Remove the object if visible, and repeat until the infant is okay. A conscious choking child can be treated the same as an adult.
Poisoning
If the child is conscious and can communicate what they ingested/what happened, call the Poison Control Center: 1-800-222-1222. If not, call 911 and proceed from there.
Do's and Don'ts for Seizures
- DO: call 911
- DO; remove nearby objects and clear their airway
- DO: turn the child onto their side
- DO: monitor their breathing and comfort them after the seizure has passed
- DON'T: restrain the child
- DON'T: put anything in their mouth to hold it open