First Aid Safety for Kids! – Tips on How to Teach Your Children Life-Saving Skills

Kids feel invincible – it’s why we admire them, and fear for them at the same time. But what if something were to happen when you weren’t around, would they have the knowledge and skills to help themselves or another kid or adult? What if while babysitting, grandma fell unconscious? Or perhaps your child found their little brother or sister not breathing while you were out of the room? They may be the only person around at the time to save a life! Here is what you need to know about teaching first aid safety for kids!

 

First Aid Safety for Kids – What to Do in an Emergency

Although some children may not be old enough to reach the first aid kit or know what items to use, they can be taught essential skills for when emergencies do happen. The first thing every child should learn is how to call 9-1-1. Take a look at this recorded 911 call of a young 3-year-old boy who called when his mother fell down the stairs and became unconscious!

  He sang his address to the dispatcher ?

 

As a parent, if you were unable to speak, unconscious, bleeding severely or unable to move, your child can call for help. Speak with your child about how to react in an emergency. Should they ever see someone badly hurt, not answering, or acting strangely, encourage them to call 911.

Even if the emergency was minor, wouldn’t you rather know that you child can call for help when they feel scared?

Additionally, it can be vital to teach your kids to always keep themselves safe first. If they see an emergency where someone seems unstable, there is fire, or they see dangerous objects around a person in need, they should stay back. Practice ‘Checking the Scene’ with your children and give them scenarios so they can have a better understanding of how to keep themselves safe!

BONUS: In addition to teaching kids how to dial 911, you may need to practice memorizing certain information. Work with your child to remember your home address, phone number, and even the password you may have on your phone! This way they will be able to answer all the right questions when speaking with an emergency responder on the phone.

Keep important information on a Q-card in their backpack at all times, and let them know it is there.

 

First Aid Safety for Kids – Cuts and Scrapes

As a kid, cuts and scrapes will be all too common. Riding a bike, running down the paths, playing at the playground, and anything else fun may result in small accidents. Although it may seem like a cut or scrape is something any adult can help them with, build their safety confidence and teach them what to do! The best way for teaching cut and scrapes to kids is to create a strategy with easy steps that they can follow:

1. When cut, find an adult you can trust immediately.
2. Wash the cut to make sure it is clean.
3. Look at how big the cut is (it may also be helpful to tell your child that if a cut is larger than their finger to call 911 if alone).
4. Bandage the cut so it can stay clean and will stop the bleeding.

 

First Aid Safety for Kids – Choking

Choking can happen to anyone – infants, children, adults, and seniors. It can be a very serious thing if an airway is blocked too long and leads to unconsciousness. Knowing how to help someone who is choking (as well as yourself) can be an essential skill for your child to have. The first thing to demonstrate for your children is what people look like when they are choking. Are they coughing a lot? Do they have their hands around their throat? Is their mouth open but they are not talking? Once they know how to recognize the signs, they can know when to jump in to help. The easiest choking skills to teach children are:

• Calling for help
• Back blows
• Abdominal thrusts (if their arms are large enough to wrap around)

Take a look at how this young 5-year-old boy saved his younger brother by giving back blows when he got a meatball stuck in his throat!

As well if they are alone and are choking, you can teach them that they should use a safe object to perform abdominal thrusts on themselves. Just think – they find a grape on the ground while you go to the bathroom and can’t yell for help.

It can be scary but teaching it to your child in a way that they can understand could be just the thing to save their life!

 

First Aid Safety for Kids – CPR

Of course, safety for kids would not be complete without teaching them CPR. If a parent, sibling, or friend needed CPR when your child was around, they could be the only one to help them. In recent news, a 10-year-old boy was able to give compressions to his younger brother who had fallen into the pool. When he pulled his brother out the boy realized his brother wasn’t breathing and began to do CPR – ending up saving his life!

Talk to your child about how CPR can help someone and when to use it. You can even tell your children to do compressions only (which are helpful as well!). Teach them:

• How to call 9-1-1 for help first
• How to check if someone is breathing
• Where to place their hands for compressions
• How fast they should do the compressions (offer song options – ‘Staying Alive,’ ‘Star Wars Darth Vader’s theme Song,’ etc.)
• How deep the compressions should be

 

If you feel you do not have the proper knowledge to teach CPR to your child properly, then perhaps it is time for a First Aid course! Update your safety and first aid knowledge by signing up for a course and then teaching it to your child (or better yet, request first aid in their school! – see next point)! Register for one of our many monthly First Aid courses!

 

First Aid Safety for Kids in Schools

Skills such as how to perform CPR and use an AED are difficult to explain to a child. Without hands-on experience, they may not fully comprehend what you are trying to teach them. As well, if you feel your skills are a little rusty, it may be better for a professional to teach your child these life-saving skills! First Edition believes that every person should have the skills to save a life. That is why we firmly believe that First Aid should be taught in schools and offer First Aid Safety for Kids classes!

 

If you would like to see your child’s school invest in these skills for kids, then speak to the school principal! We would be ecstatic to come into the school and teach a short and comprehensive course that kids will understand and enjoy. They will leave with life-saving skills, first aid knowledge, and a confidence that they can make a difference too! Contact info@firsteditionfirstaid.ca for more information about our school program or to schedule a time for your child’s school to host a First Aid course!

 

Give your child skills that could be life-changing! First aid safety for kids is just as important as it is for adults. When kids know how to handle emergencies, they can help themselves and others. It is not uncommon for a child to be the one to save the day, all they need is to know what to do!