Last night we two grandmas and one aunt finished up our First Aid/CPR class. It is one of the requirements to become licensed respite caregivers for our children's foster babies. It was quite an experience. The methods have changed since I last got a certificate.
We practiced on adult size dummies, and infant dummies. It was informative and a little scary. The basic drill is 30 compressions for one minute intersected followed by two breaths - tiny breaths for tiny kids, and then round and round again. God forbid. Delivering 30 compressions a minute on an adult proved physically difficult for me, and somewhat easier with children. Maybe I need to start lifting my little hand weights again.
The most troubling thing I heard was that most home accidents with small children are choking ones. Our instruction says that anything small enough to pass through a toilet paper tube is small enough to choke a child. I remember turning my own two year old upside down and clapping him on the back to eject a peanut. I felt stupid afterwards for letting him have one in the first place and they were removed from the house for several years. Turned out it was the right thing to do, you invert a small child down your leg and clap it on the back, and then turn him or her over and do the same on the front and repeat.
We got a briefing on how to use AED's (Automatic External Defibrillator) that shocks hearts back into beating, hopefully. Not that any of us have one, they cost $1300 and up, and up. Good to know they are easy to use, and schools are beginning to buy them. I did buy a little kit with two masks for mouth to mouth for children and adults, barrier devices they call them. We practiced giving epipen injections. Two of us grandmas actually have them for severe allergies.
I'm glad to have new skills and to have a refreshed awareness of the environment we are in and how to help. We were told as a Good Samaritan (in Washington State at least) you can't give non-family members medicine, even their own, but you can "assist" them to take some. I guess its a CYA for the Good Sam laws here. I think anyone who can take these classes should, especially if you have kids or folks with health problems in your life. You can learn help and when not to if someone has DNR's or a POALST with instructions. And one the best things is that little cell phone and 911.
We practiced on adult size dummies, and infant dummies. It was informative and a little scary. The basic drill is 30 compressions for one minute intersected followed by two breaths - tiny breaths for tiny kids, and then round and round again. God forbid. Delivering 30 compressions a minute on an adult proved physically difficult for me, and somewhat easier with children. Maybe I need to start lifting my little hand weights again.
The most troubling thing I heard was that most home accidents with small children are choking ones. Our instruction says that anything small enough to pass through a toilet paper tube is small enough to choke a child. I remember turning my own two year old upside down and clapping him on the back to eject a peanut. I felt stupid afterwards for letting him have one in the first place and they were removed from the house for several years. Turned out it was the right thing to do, you invert a small child down your leg and clap it on the back, and then turn him or her over and do the same on the front and repeat.
We got a briefing on how to use AED's (Automatic External Defibrillator) that shocks hearts back into beating, hopefully. Not that any of us have one, they cost $1300 and up, and up. Good to know they are easy to use, and schools are beginning to buy them. I did buy a little kit with two masks for mouth to mouth for children and adults, barrier devices they call them. We practiced giving epipen injections. Two of us grandmas actually have them for severe allergies.
I'm glad to have new skills and to have a refreshed awareness of the environment we are in and how to help. We were told as a Good Samaritan (in Washington State at least) you can't give non-family members medicine, even their own, but you can "assist" them to take some. I guess its a CYA for the Good Sam laws here. I think anyone who can take these classes should, especially if you have kids or folks with health problems in your life. You can learn help and when not to if someone has DNR's or a POALST with instructions. And one the best things is that little cell phone and 911.
posted by Celia | February 17, 2012
2 Comments:
I agree. No more breathing here tho, just compressions. I admire all you grammas.
try 3
When my turn at training came for me to hit the *grape* out of the toddler's mouth by knocking on the dummy's back...... it shot right across the room like a bullet.
Grapes are often the thing that causes choking in infants.
Maggie X
Nuts in May
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