First-Aid Training for Children Under 5's

"Children are angels whose wings grow shorter as their legs grow longer." (Old French Proverb)

Once our angelic babies are already unstoppable, wandering, and became curious machines whose only purpose in life (apart from eating) is to make mess as possible, injuries are always a common thing and we as adults should never take for granted the basic survival skills. We know that many young children are inquisitive, curious and "risk-takers"; venturing out into a world that is immense and dangerous. Compare our children with little cars without steering wheels, bumpers or brakes!

Until children learn the basic survival skills, they remain vulnerable and at greater risk of injury in the home. Parents or carers must carry out a difficult balancing act between encouraging children to explore and develop, while ensuring they don't get hurt. Although prevention is ultimately the best, First-Aid Course helps deal with some of the common injuries that may occur within the home.

For three thursday mornings this June, i had participated in a First-aid training course for under 5 year olds at Kintore Community Center. I had been a first-aider when i was in highschool and college but first-aid is a very important thing that you need to refresh every now and then. It was a long while since i had a refresher's course. I was so happy after finishing this short course.

My first-aid learnings during my younger days were focused on older people, but this one is different, we focused on babies 5 year olds below. The other differece is the kind of environment that we focused. I asked them," what shall we do if an ant went to child's ear?" This happened to me many times when i was kid. Nobody had answered, they were like shock with the question! And then one instructor said, " I had never seen an ant in Scotland!". Oh, great!!!!

Anyway, the areas that we covered were the following:

1. Unintentional Injuries and Accidents in under 14's like Falls, Burns/Scalds, Poisoning and Garden Injuries. ( We try an avois using the term "accident" and instead refer to this as an "unintentional injury". Using "accident" can make people believe that the injury was just bad luck, a random event and ultimately unavoidable. This is not the case as many "accidents" can be predicted and avoided. We are trying to challenge the belief that "nothing can be done" and show that many "unintentional injuries" are preventable.

2. Fire Safety/Electricity Safety/Glass Safety

3. Safety Barriers and Door Safety

4. Cuts and Wounds

5. Fracture

6. Shock/ Seizure or Fit

7. Choking

8. Child Basic Life Support (AR/CPR)

Always the aims of first-aid are to preserve life, prevent condition getting worse and promote recovery before the services of a physician is obtained.