By JADE GLEN
A CHILD’S first injury is a milestone that most parents would rather avoid – but a few scrapes, bruises, stitches or broken bones are an almost inevitable part of growing up.
Recently my almost two-year-old daughter took her first tumble off the side of the couch, landing headfirst on tiles and coming up with a gigantic egg on her forehead.
It was her first real injury and I didn’t know what to do. I panicked. Was I meant to ice it, leave it alone, keep her awake, or take her to hospital? I had no idea. I had completed a first aid course a few years ago but it was a general course and not related to childhood injuries.
Elise Phillips from React First Aid says that staying calm when their child is injured can be the hardest part for parents.
“The hardest thing to do in an emergency is to stay calm – but if you have the knowledge stored in your brain it is unbelievable how quickly you spring to action and know what to do in that emergency,” she said.
A critical care trained nurse and mother-of-two, Elise said she has seen it all.
“Head injuries can be a bit frightening – as an emergency nurse and a mother I see these all the time.
“I always say if your child cries straight away it is a good sign; it’s when they don’t cry and go all pale and floppy that you should start to worry.
“One thing that has changed is that you no longer have to keep your child that has bumped their head awake like you use to – the rule of thumb is if they were due for a nap at that time let them sleep and just keep an eye on them.”
Part of Elise’s role as a senior nurse was to train and assess other staff members in their basic and advanced life support skills.
“In doing this I found I had a real passion for teaching people CPR. I would always be telling my family and friends outside of work how important CPR and first aid training was.”
This year, while on maternity leave, Elise turned her passion in to her work by launching her business React First Aid which delivers nationally recognised first aid training catered to parents, teachers, carers and grandparents.
“It’s amazing how first aid changes over the years.
“All information is based upon the Australian Resuscitation Council Guidelines and they do update their guidelines often.”
While her courses cover a range of topics, Elise believes the most important this is learning how to correctly perform CPR.
“A lot of parents wouldn’t even think that they would have to use it on a child but in children you may need to use CPR because of an irregular heart rhythm, a respiratory arrest from chocking or asthma, drowning, poisoning, SIDS or trauma,” she said.
After my daughter’s couch-diving incident I was horrified by the egg rapidly growing on her forehead, and called triple zero.
I spoke to a lovely paramedic who reassured me that an ambulance was not required and I just needed to keep a close eye on her over the next few hours and head to hospital if anything changed.
Her head grew some interesting shades of purple over the next few weeks and she even got a black eye to boot but, thankfully, there were no lasting effects.
Needless to say I have checked and double checked that our ambulance cover is up to date and will be brushing up on my first aid skills as soon as possible.
For more information on React First Aid visit www.reactfirstaid.com.au.
What to do if a baby or child is choking
Elise said that choking is a common concern for parents.
She offered the following advice based on the latest Australia Resuscitation Council guidelines.
* If they are coughing, encourage them to cough up the obstruction.
* Deliver five back blows, a hard, sharp, upward blow in-between the shoulder blades, one blow at a time.
* If the back blows don’t work, deliver five chest thrusts, similar to a compression but with one hand and a bit sharper. One thrust at a time.
* Alternate between the back blows and chest thrusts until the object is coughed up or until the child becomes unconscious and then CPR will need to be applied.
