Your baby hurting themself is every parent’s worst nightmare, we get it. While it’s unlikely anything should harm them, accidents happen. Arm yourself with baby first aid advice because one day it could save a life, and, frankly, it’s the only thing that will truly give you peace of mind in looking after a newborn. Indeed, the list of things that could possibly happen is endless and you can sit there worrying ‘what if’ or you can spend that time learning how to react in an emergency. Nobody is expecting you to be a medical professional but here’s how to swot up on saving your baby’s life.
Take a course
For £25 and less than a morning of your time, the NCT and British Red Cross will teach you how to be the most useful person in the room in an emergency situation.
Every parent worries about their child choking, so get on this interactive course and learn how to react just in case. It’ll give you a far better idea of how much pressure to apply when a child is suffocating than staring at a web page.
Download the app
A must-have for all parents, the British Red Cross Baby and Child First Aid app. It doesn’t need an internet connection, so don’t worry about that. Download it, familiarise yourself with it, and don’t ever delete it off your phone to free up space. That’s an order.
Commit some bits to memory
You don’t need to know everything but have some things memorised (e.g how to respond to choking, an unresponsive baby, bleeding etc.). These common things are covered on the baby first aid course and the app, so it will not be too hard to become well versed. It’s all fairly basic stuff. Remember you’re not performing heart surgery, it’s first aid. Also, if you’re on your second time around, it does not hurt brush up on your knowledge.
Have the essentials on hand
Get out your shopping list, we’re just about to make it a bit longer. Make sure you’re stocked up on age-appropriate painkiller (paracetamol, ibuprofen), plasters, bandages, antiseptic creams, antihistamine cream etc. And that first aid box you haven’t touched in years? Dust it off and make sure you’ve got everything. You’ll probably overdo it, but what is it your mother says? Better safe than sorry.
Do what you can
You’ve passed the course, you’ve got the knowledge, you’ve got this in the (nappy) bag. Rather than panicking, calm down and put the steps into action. If they’re choking, you can handle this. A bumped head? Frozen peas. Be rational. The internet and your first aid app are just a few taps away. If you need to get to A&E, get in the car and go.
Go with your gut
If your baby is experiencing symptoms that aren’t exceptionally out of the ordinary, but something still doesn’t feel quite right, go with your gut. Take them to the hospital. You’re an adult, you’ve got this.
