Child & Infant CPR Certification

Babies explore the world by putting anything and everything into their mouths, which creates choking hazards, and even older children get into life-threatening situations every day. Because children physically are so much smaller than adults, parents, caregivers and educators need to use a special form of cardio-pulmonary resuscitation with children who are under 12 years old. Certification in this type of CPR is available.

Definition

• Infant/Child CPR certification is CPR certification that deals with newborns, toddlers and preteens. Primary objectives of obtaining certification are to learn how to manually free airways, assist air flow to the lungs and compress the chest so as to stimulate the heart to beat.

Topics and Requirements

• When you take an infant/child CPR certification course, your instructor will guide you through the steps of assessing the status of the child (e.g., conscious, not breathing, no heart beat), clearing airways and giving mouth to mouth. You also will learn how to position the child, and give chest compressions or back thrusts. Some courses also provide information on other basic first aid that may be useful in cases where CPR on a child is necessitated. Lastly, you will be instructed on how to contact medical assistance through the 911 system as you conduct CPR. In order to obtain certification, you typically have to participate in hands-on work and answer questions in all of these areas.

Training Length

• The training that leads to infant/child CPR certification is extremely short. In the majority of programs, certification training lasts only two to four hours. The short amount of training time necessary has led to infant/child CPR being taught as part of prenatal programs through local hospitals and clinics.

Certification Method

• You may choose to obtain certification either through an instructor-led course or through an online course. Instructor-led courses usually feature hands-on demonstrations. Since this is much more difficult to do with an online course, online courses sway more toward visual aids and longer exams. Notedly, some organizations will not accept certification obtained online due to the lack of hands-on experience.

Training Sites/Organizations

• Infant/child CPR is offered by the American Red Cross, cprtoday.com, the American Heart Association (americanheart.org) and emergencyuniversity.com, in addition to many other sites. You also may check with your local hospital or clinic, as many of them hold infant/child CPR courses regularly. Before registering for your certification training, make sure the institution you are investigating follows the infant/child CPR guidelines set forth by the American Red Cross--unfortunately, some programs are scams.

Fees

• The cost to become certified in infant/child CPR is low. Depending on where you get your training, your certification probably will range between $0 and $75.