Children’s safety and first aid experience

The priority of children's safety protection is much higher than that of emergency first aid. Qualified first aid operations do not mean copying fragmented tutorials on the Internet, nor do they fear being too panicked to do anything. Instead, they need to be flexibly adjusted based on the mastery of standard movements and the physiological characteristics of children of different ages. There is never a universal formula that can be applied to all scenarios.

Last month, I encountered a real incident downstairs in the community: my 2-year-old child swallowed a whole piece of jelly and got stuck in his throat. His face instantly turned purple from holding back the jelly. My grandma was holding her cell phone while scrolling through Heimlich's tutorial. She was shaking so much that she couldn't even hold the baby. When I rushed over, the baby could no longer make a sound. I quickly turned the baby over and laid it on my forearm. I patted the middle of my shoulder blades five times with my head down and my feet high. The moment the jelly spit out, the sweat on my back soaked my T-shirt.

Afterward, some people said that I was brave. What if I did something wrong and injured the baby? Some people also say that grandma is so stupid that she can’t even do Heimlich. In fact, both of these statements are a bit extreme. The two types of professionals I have come into contact with have different opinions on the priority of first aid: many doctors in the emergency room of the Municipal Children's Hospital belong to the "send first" group. They have seen too many secondary injuries caused by random manipulations by non-professionals - such as randomly slapping the back of a baby with a stuck throat to push the foreign object deeper, casually picking up a baby who has fallen from a building and causing cervical spine dislocation. So they always say that as long as the baby can still cry and talk, don't move blindly and send him to the hospital as soon as possible. The instructor who took my first aid certificate exam is a real "on-site responder". He always talks about data: the golden rescue time for foreign objects stuck in the throat and cardiac arrest is only 4-6 minutes, and the average ambulance arrival time in urban areas during peak hours is 12 minutes. Waiting for the car to arrive, everything will be too late.

I have encountered seven or eight situations that require on-site treatment in the past three years. The most practical experience is not to stand aside, but to consider the situation: If the baby is stuck in something and still cries and shouts, it means that the airway is not completely blocked. Don’t pat or pick randomly, and drive to the hospital quickly. This is better than anything else.； If you can no longer make a sound and your lips are blue, don’t hesitate, start immediately and ask someone to call 120 at the same time. Oh, by the way, many parents asked me about Heimlich's standard movements. They said on the Internet that they said they could hold them while standing, that they put them on their laps, and that they said they stood upside down. In fact, the guideline clearly states that children under 1 year old should lie on their backs and have their shoulder blades pressed, and children over 1 year old should stand behind them and hold their abdomen. Handstands are absolutely not recommended. It is easy to drop the baby, and it is impossible to squeeze out the contents of the airway.

To be honest, no matter how much we talk about first aid, it is just a matter of filling in the gaps afterwards. When my own baby was just learning to crawl, I covered all the corners of the table at home, put protective covers on all the sockets, and deliberately put all the sharp things into the cabinet, thinking that everything was safe. I turned around and saw him holding the ear pick that I had forgotten on the coffee table and stuffing it into my ears. I was so scared that I was scared out of my wits. I rushed to the hospital and the doctor said that luckily he didn’t puncture the eardrum, but only scratched the skin. That’s when I realized that there is no “full coverage” in child safety? You never imagine what weird things your baby might pull out and stuff into her mouth, nose, or ears in the next second.

There are also many elderly people who really need to change their inherent concepts. Last time, a grandma took care of her baby. The baby touched the thermos bottle and burned her hand. The grandma insisted on applying toothpaste on it, saying it would reduce the swelling, but she couldn't stop her. When she got to the hospital, the doctor had to clean off the toothpaste first. Instead, the baby cried in pain, aggravating the injury. There has been a lot of debate before about whether cold water should be used for burns. Some people say that cold water will "irritate" the wound and leave scars. In fact, the latest burn and scald treatment guidelines clearly state that running cold water for 15-30 minutes is the most effective on-site treatment method, which can quickly reduce the temperature and reduce the damage. As for applying toothpaste, soy sauce, badger oil and other earthly methods, they are all wrong and may cause infection if not done properly.

When I usually go to kindergartens to do science popularization, teachers always ask me if there is any "safety list" that I can write down so that if I follow it, I can ensure that my baby is fine. I tell the truth every time, no. For example, if you say you don’t let your baby run, then your baby naturally loves to run and jump, so you can’t keep it tied to your body, right? For example, if you tell your child not to touch sharp objects, he will always take advantage of you when you are not paying attention. When I give advice to parents now, I never say "What do you have to do?" I always say "First look at what your child likes to touch and put in his mouth, and sort out these hidden dangers first." This is much more useful than copying a comprehensive list on the Internet.

In fact, after doing science popularization for so long, my biggest feeling is that whether it is safety or first aid, in the final analysis, it is a "people-oriented" matter. Don't follow the tutorials, and don't take it seriously. When you really encounter an accident, calm down for half a minute, judge the situation clearly before taking action, it is better than anything else. After all, the reason we are doing this is so that our children can suffer less.