Infant First Aid & CPR

Growing up my summer job was at a YMCA camp. It was an incredible experience where I learned so much about leadership, teamwork and myself. One of the most valuable things I learned, that I didn’t realize was so valuable until very recently, was how to perform first aid and CPR on infants and young kids. Fortunately, I never needed to perform CPR at any point as a camp counselor. However, 14 years later, I was in a situation that made it vital for me to recall my past training.

A few weekends ago, my older three kids went to stay with their grandparents for a few days which left me with just my 2 year old and 9 month old. TWO KIDS. The house was so quiet and I hardly knew what to do with myself. Anyway, the morning before I was planning on taking the younger two to get the older three, I had run to the bathroom quick. I left the door open with the younger two girls playing in the living room and as I was finishing up, I heard a noise from my 9 month old that I had not heard before. I ran out to the living room and saw her sitting with her mouth open, struggling to make noise. I quickly ran my finger around her mouth but didn’t feel anything. Despite not feeling anything in her mouth, she was still clearly having a hard time so I remembered my training and laid her on my forearm, face towards the floor. After she was in position I took the base of my palm and performed four back blows and checked her mouth again. And there, on her tongue, was a blueberry her sister was given as a snack the day before that we somehow missed during clean up. 

I have seldom felt the same level of panic as this exact moment (besides when my oldest walked away from me at the airport in Boston to throw her gum away without telling me) and I was extremely shook up for the rest of the day. What if I hadn’t heard her? What if I had been 5 seconds later? What if the first back blows didn’t work? But mostly, WHAT IF I HADN’T HAD THE TRAINING??? The thought brings back waves of anxiety and worry but I am so glad I had the information I needed to help my baby girl. 

So the thing I’ve learned, or basically a PSA, you, and everyone watching your children should be familiar with infant and child first aid & CPR. You will never regret taking a few hours to learn this training!

The best places to find classes are through a local hospital, or the American Red Cross. The Red Cross even has an online course here! And if you only have a few minutes to watch a quick video, @shan.tripp has a "baby choke" highlight on Instagram as well as a ton of other helpful info from being a pediatric ER nurse!