Summary of experiences on children’s safety and first aid

The core of children's safety is always prevention than rescue. 90% of injuries can be avoided in advance.； The first rule of children's first aid is never to know how to perform difficult operations, but to calm down and judge the risks first. Don't blindly perform operations that you "think are right" and cause secondary harm to the baby.

To be honest, when I first took up the job, I was superstitious about "standard procedures" and followed the instructions when giving lectures to parents. It wasn't until I encountered the peanut stuck in my throat that I realized that there was really a big difference between the actual practice and the books. One night in late autumn last year, I was called back by the property management company just after I got off work. Grandma Zhang from Building 3 was feeding her 2-year-old grandson boiled peanuts. The baby laughed and choked, and her face turned red from holding it in. Grandma Zhang remembered the Heimlich video she had seen, so she hugged the baby and slapped her on the back. As a result, the baby could no longer make a sound and her lips began to turn purple. When I ran over, I first touched the baby's neck. There was still a pulsation in the carotid artery, and I could hear a faint sound of breathing, which meant there was no complete obstruction. I didn't directly take a picture, but squatted down and said to the baby, "Baby, cough hard and cough out the peanuts, okay?" ” The baby followed me and coughed three or four times, and half a peanut spurted out. The moment I cried, my back was wet. Later, when I was looking through the information, I also discovered that the industry has actually had different views on how to deal with foreign objects stuck in the throat: the American AHA guideline clearly states that children under 1 year old should use back pats and chest shocks, and those over 1 year old should use Heimlich. However, the directors of pediatric emergency departments in many domestic tertiary hospitals have mentioned this. , if the child can still cough and make sounds on his own, even if the face turns red, priority should be given to encouraging voluntary excretion of sputum. External impact may make the foreign body get stuck deeper, or even damage the ribs and internal organs. To put it bluntly, the premise of the operation is always to judge the status first, rather than following the process.

Speaking of prevention, I actually often "quarrel" with two types of parents. One type is the "sterile box" type of parents. All the table corners in the house are covered with anti-collision strips, all sockets are sealed, and even the floor is covered with a 3 cm thick crawling mat. They wish their children's feet would not touch the ground without even a chance to bump into them. ； The other type is the "free-range" parents who say they want to train their children's ability to resist risks. They put the hot water bottle beside the table and the knife wherever they want. They say they will know the pain after falling a few times. Are you saying these two are completely wrong? Neither. I have seen a child who was tightly wrapped in anti-collision strips go to an amusement park and hit a hard table corner and smashed his head because he never knew what "pain" felt like and had no sense of hiding. ； I have also seen a free-range baby suffer second-degree burns after touching a boiling kettle. The parents squatted at the door of the emergency room and cried, saying that they never thought the baby would dare to touch it. When I was taking care of my relative's baby, I would put the scalding kettle high, but leave a cup filled with warm water over 40 degrees Celsius within his reach. He touched it once, retracted it and said "hot". After that, he would stay away from the steaming cup - protection is not to eliminate all risks, but to teach the baby to recognize the risks. You really have to control this degree yourself.

There is another pitfall that I have mentioned eight hundred times and people still step on it, which is applying things randomly after being burned. Last month, a child knocked over the porridge that had just been served, and his arm was burned red. Grandma quickly applied a thick layer of soy sauce and sprinkled salt, saying that "sterilization will leave no scars." When it was delivered, the red areas had turned brown. It was only a slight burn at first, but after the tossing, it almost left pigmentation. Oh yes, there are also people who apply toothpaste and aloe vera gel. I really see too many of them. In fact, it is a general principle to "rinse off and cover with blisters" after a burn, but the specific length of time to rinse is not the 15 minutes rule that everyone says: if there is only redness and no blisters, rinse for 10 to 15 minutes and you will feel no pain. ； If blisters have already appeared, as long as the baby is not shivering or losing temperature, it is best to flush the baby for more than 20 minutes. Do not break the blisters while flushing. Cover the baby with clean gauze and send it to the hospital. Do not apply anything colored or irritating.

Many parents ask me for a "must-buy list of children's first aid kits for families", but I never provide a uniform template of 10 or 20 items. In fact, the most useful things for ordinary families are iodophor, sterile gauze, normal saline, and children's antipyretic suppositories. There is really no need for other bells and whistles. Once upon a time, a parent bought internet-famous styptic powder, and her baby broke his knee while running. She poured a thick layer of styptic powder on it, but the bleeding stopped and the powder was all embedded in the wound. She went to the hospital for debridement three times and the baby cried heartbreakingly, but instead suffered. If your child has a history of allergies, add an extra epinephrine pen ； If you have asthma, prepare albuterol. It is really much more useful than styptic powder or mosquito repellent.

To be honest, the longer I work in this field, the more I realize that first aid is not as mysterious as everyone thinks. I have seen too many parents watch dozens of short first aid videos. When something happens, their hands are so shaking that they can’t even dial the 120 number correctly. I have also seen parents who have never learned any first aid knowledge. When their child chokes, they call 120 as soon as possible and follow the operator’s instructions. In the end, everything is fine. Instead of watching anxious videos about "Learn this trick to save your baby's life" every day, it is better to spend 5 minutes every day to check whether the medicine at home is locked, whether the anti-theft net on the balcony is tightly closed, and whether there is fresh hot soup on the dining table - after all, the best safety is to avoid having to learn first aid knowledge.