|  | Public Health Safety | CPR

Tips for CPR on Children

One of the last things a parent or any other adult wants to address is dealing with a child that has stopped breathing. You must make quick decisions and start rescue breathing and CPR procedures immediately. For best results, you must know the basic process well enough that you can proceed without hesitation.

  1. Observation and Preparation

    • Check for responsiveness. Pat the child's shoulder. Yell near the child's ear, asking if he's okay. Have a bystander, if one is available, call 911 to activate Emergency Medical Services. If you're alone, perform rescue breathing or CPR for one minute, and then call EMS. Roll the child onto his back. Turn the child's body, leg, and head over at that time. Do this gently to avoid further injury to the child.

    Prepare the Airway

    • Open the child's airway. Place your hand nearest the child's head on her forehead and use backward pressure to tilt the head back. Put the fingers of your other hand under the jawbone near the chin and lift. Don't press on soft tissue under the jaw. Tilt the child's head backward without closing the mouth. Avoid using your thumb to lift the chin. If a spine injury is suspected, don't move the child's head or neck. Try lifting the chin without angling the head back. If breaths are not going in, carefully move the head back until breaths go in.

    Perform Slow Breaths

    • Put your ear over the child's mouth and nose, still allowing the airway to remain open. Observe the child's chest area, checking for rise and fall. Look, listen, and feel for breathing. This should take three to five seconds. Pinch the child's nose shut. Keeping the head tilted back, take a breath and put your mouth tightly around the child's mouth, forming a seal. Perform two slow breaths, each lasting 1 to 1.5 seconds. Take a breath after each breath given to the child. Observe the chest for a rise indicating the breath is going in. Allow the chest to deflate after each breath.

    Look for a Pulse

    • Confirm that a pulse is present. While maintaining the head tilt with your hand on the child's forehead, find the Adam's apple in the front center area of the neck using two fingers of your other hand. Glide your fingers down to the furrow of the neck on the side closest to you. Feel for the carotid pulse. This can take five to 10 seconds. Don't use your thumb since you may feel your own pulse.

    Pulse But No Breathing

    • If there's a pulse but no breathing, perform one rescue breath every three seconds. Use the same techniques for rescue breathing giving one breath only. Stop after every 20 breaths to check the pulse. Continue this process until the child starts breathing or trained help arrives.

    No Pulse

    • If there's no pulse, give CPR. Glide the fingers of your hand nearest the child's feet up the rib cage edge nearest you to find the notch at the end of the sternum or breastbone. Put the heel of this same hand immediately above the sternum notch. Placing your shoulder directly over your hand on the sternum, carry out five compressions at the rate of 100 per minute, keeping the arm straight and elbow locked. Push 1 to 1.5 inches straight down on the sternum. Use smooth movements, not stopping at the top or the bottom of the compression. Give one slow breath. Perform 19 more cycles and recheck the pulse. If there's still no pulse, restart CPR with chest compressions. Recheck the pulse every few minutes. If a pulse is present, give rescue breathing. Continue CPR or rescue breathing until the child revives or trained help arrives.

CPR - Related Articles