Parents want their children to be safe and shielded from injury, but, life is unpredictable and sometimes, the worst can happen and things can be out of your control. In order to ensure that you have peace of mind, learning basic first aid skills is essential as a parent. You could even look at first aid training courses near you so you can use it in other parts of your life. If your little one finds themselves in an emergency situation, knowing what to do will help you to keep your calm and stay in control. To help you manage any kind of medical scenario that could unfold, you need to ensure that you have one of the best first aid kits to hand to make sure you have all of the necessary medical supplies. You can buy already prepared kits and you can check out more here, or you can create your own. Once you have a kit, you need to work on your skills. We’ve put together some of the main first aid skills that you should take the time to learn as a parent.
Dealing with Broken Bones:
One of the most common injuries that you might see as a parent is broken bones. Whether it’s breaking an arm playing football or falling over in the playground, it isn’t always difficult for children to break a bone, especially if they are active and sporty. Breaking a bone can be painful, and if you’re unsure what to do as a parent, it can be easy to cause even more damage without meaning to. Learning how to tie a sling, and what to do in the event of a broken leg, will help to give you peace of mind if these accidents happen. Broken bones must always be treated urgently by a medical professional. This is why, following a breakage, it would be wise to seek out pediatric bone doctors in your area so your child can receive the care they need.
Stopping Bleeding:
Another skill that is useful to know as a parent is how to stop bleeding. If your little one cuts themselves, making sure that the flow of blood is stopped as quickly as possible is best to help calm the situation down so that the wound can be treated. The best way to stop blood is to apply pressure using a sterile pad. If possible, raise the affected area to help slow the blood flow.
Choking:
For many parents, their worst nightmare is to find their child choking. But, there is a real risk of this happening, as choking on food can happen to anybody, and all it takes is one second for a little one to get a blocked airway when eating. As a parent, knowing what to do in this situation could actually save your child’s life. For smaller children, the best way to deal with choking is to administer an abdominal thrust, known as the Heimlich manoeuvre. For babies and toddlers, you should hold them over your lap face down and use the heel of your hand to give around five blows between their shoulder blades until the obstruction comes away.
CPR:
Although you will hopefully never have to perform CPR on your child, knowing this skill is essential for every parent, as you never know when you may be needed to help save a life. You can take affordable CPR classes, held by the American Heart Association in a range of locations, to learn CPR. You can even learn how to use a portable defibrillator like the Lifepak CR2 and keep one in your first aid kit.
As a parent, you hope that nothing bad will ever happen to your child. But, since life can be so unpredictable, it’s always best to make sure that you are prepared. Which first aid skills do you think all parents should learn? Let us know in the comments.