CPR & First Aid for Children & Infants

Even a person certified in CPR or first aid may be helpless in the face of an emergency involving a child or infant. Most general CPR classes, even if they provide certification, focus on emergencies involving adults, and the techniques that work for full-grown men and women will not help an ailing infant or child. Understanding the different techniques can mean life or death in a dangerous situation.

Emergency Situations

• In the case of adult emergencies, CPR is often administered in cases of congestive heart failure or extreme trauma that has led to heart failure. However, heart failure is extremely rare in children and infants, and so your approach to emergency action may be different.

  Child first aid situations often range from simple bumps and bruises that require bandages to full-scale emergencies.

  While heart failure is rare, a child may require CPR in the event of poison (ingesting chemicals or toxins), smoke inhalation, near drowning or extreme head trauma that has caused breathing to stop.

Assessing Need

• Before you perform any first aid or CPR procedures, assess the needs of the child. Look for obvious injuries that may be bleeding. Check for possible neck or spinal injuries; never move someone who may have a neck or spinal injury, or you could make things much worse.

  Check the child or infant for medical identifiers, such as bracelets or necklaces. People who have chronic illnesses such as intense allergies or diabetes will often wear these charms to alert people to possible medical emergencies. If you find one of these, read what it says and follow instructions regarding who to contact or what type of medicine to administer (insulin, epinephrine).

  If you do not see any bleeding, spinal or neck injuries, but the infant or child is unresponsive, try to rouse her with gentle shaking and yelling. If she is still unresponsive, check for breathing; listen and feel at the nose and mouth and observe chest movement. If the victim is not moving, you may need to perform CPR.

  When an adult experiences a medical emergency, the automatic response is to dial 9-1-1 or another emergency number. If you are not alone during an infant and child emergency, it is important to instruct someone else to call 9-1-1 while you begin first aid or CPR.

  However, according to First Aid Web, which provides training for CPR and first aid, children and infants are often much more receptive to the efforts of CPR than adults. If you are alone with a child or infant that has stopped breathing, perform CPR for up to two minutes before calling 9-1-1. This way, you have a better chance of getting the child breathing faster. If there is still no response after two minutes, dial 9-1-1 and then begin CPR again, or follow the emergency provider's instructions.

First Aid Basics

• A well-stocked first aid kit in your car or home can mean life or death in a medical emergency. Be sure you have access to and know how to use medical necessities for any illness that your own children have: insulin injections for diabetes, epinephrine injectors for allergies.

  If there is blood present during the emergency, always wear plastic gloves to protect yourself from contamination. Also, never perform CPR to someone who is bleeding from the mouth.

  Clean wounds and injuries with hydrogen peroxide or rubbing alcohol before you administer any bandages. If wounds are not clean, they run more a risk of becoming infected and causing more problems. If bleeding is extensive, tape gauze over the wound and change it when it looks as though it has absorbed too much to try to stop the bleeding.

Infant CPR

• If you have to apply CPR to an infant, remember that their bones and skin are delicate, so be careful with breathing and compressions.
  Tilt the infant's head back with two fingers and gently pinch the nose closed. As you breath into the infant's mouth, watch the chest rise; only breath into the mouth until the chest rises completely. This will take much less air than it would for an adult or older child.

  Breath two breaths into the infant's mouth, and then perform 30 chest compressions in the center of the chest, just below the nipple line. Use only two fingers to compress the chest, and only press down about 1 inch; stronger compressions can damage the infant's heart, lungs or chest. Continue CPR with two breaths and 30 compressions until the infant becomes responsive or help arrives.

Child CPR

• As with the infant, tilt the child's head back with two fingers and gently pinch the nose closed. Breath into the child's mouth twice; watch the chest rise until it hits its apex and then stop. This will involve more air than it would for an infant, but may still need less than an adult would.

  Perform chest compressions with the heel of one hand in the center of the chest, just below the nipple line. The chest should compress about halfway through its full depth; do not try to force it any farther than that, or you risk heart, lung or rib damage.

  Perform 30 compressions for every two breaths until the child becomes responsive or help arrives.