Infant and Toddler First Aid

patrickrushe

First aid is a an essential parenting skill. Immediate and appropriate first aid at the onset of illness or injury can not only save a life, but can also drastically reduce recovery time, and limit any long term effects or disability.

St. John Ambulance is launching a new course specifically aimed at new and expecting parents. It will take place on a Saturday in April and more details can be found here:
St John Ambulance - Toddler and Infant First Aid Course

While St. John is the only one I know of that has a course specifically for this, other organisations would also cover it as part of their more generic first aid courses. These include the Order of Malta and Irish Red Cross.

St. John Ambulance, the Irish Red Cross, the Order of Malta are registered charities ran, for the most part, by unpaid volunteers.

If you are aware of any other first aid courses for new parents, add them to this thread.

First Aid Ireland

Google is your friend for this kind of thing.

The only thing I would say to parents is to make sure that any course you do specifically covers infant and child CPR and choking. Dealing with both of these situations are real game changers in terms of first aid and require urgent intervention. Heavy bleeding is the same, as well as unconsciousness.

90% of courses cover all of the above, so you'll almost always be fine. But make sure you check that before you sign up. The likes of St John's Ambulance as linked above are excellent and will cover that stuff. But look around for courses that suit your location and availability.

First aid is a great skill to learn, but it's also not something that you'll learn once and never forget. It's something that you should do a course in every year or two.

galah

is CPR and rescue breathing not part of the first aid course when you get you driver's license over here? (oh wait - do you actually have to attend a first aid course to get your license over here...?)
I remember having to learn how to do these on adults and infants as part of the requirements for the driver's license in Germany...

But great stuff, a refresher course would be useful alright!

First Aid Ireland

galah wrote: »

is CPR and rescue breathing not part of the first aid course when you get you driver's license over here? (oh wait - do you actually have to attend a first aid course to get your license over here...?)
I remember having to learn how to do these on adults and infants as part of the requirements for the driver's license in Germany...

But great stuff, a refresher course would be useful alright!

There are no requirements in Ireland to attend a first aid course before you get a driver's license.

Rabidlamb

I've been looking into this lately, I've found a few private companies who seem to offer dedicated Paediatric courses.

http://www.firstaidforeveryone.ie/paediatric-first-aid/parents-first-aid-1-day-course
These run full day courses across a range of dates in Bewleys Hotel at Newlands Cross. €100 for a full day course.

http://www.earlyyearsfirstaid.ie/page004.aspx
These seem less Dublin centric & are offering dates in Tullamore, Athlone, Mullingar etc. €50 for a 4 hour course.

http://claphandies.com/firstaid_booking.php
Based in Dublin again, with a name I recognise. €140 for a 5 hour course.

Has anyone any experience or recommendations of any of the above ?.
Thanks.

moobags

Rabidlamb wrote: »

http://www.earlyyearsfirstaid.ie
These seem less Dublin centric & are offering dates in Tullamore, Athlone, Mullingar etc. EUR50 for a 4 hour course.

Has anyone any experience or recommendations of any of the above ?.
Thanks.

I was at a public course in Kilkenny about 6 weeks ago run by that company above. It was a full on 4 hours, nearly half of it was doing CPR & choking on adult & baby manakins. We had a good group so there was loads of interaction with the instructor & time for questions.
I've cross checked the other websites & they all seem to cover the main essential topics. If the state funds pre-natal classes then I believe that they should also look at funding post-natal pediatric first aid classes aswell. Maybe when the economy picks up again.

First Aid Ireland

moobags wrote: »

If the state funds pre-natal classes then I believe that they should also look at funding post-natal pediatric first aid classes aswell. Maybe when the economy picks up again.

That's a reasonable point. But I'm not sure the money would be well spent, as the cost of training the public properly (and with proper refresher training) would be very high. I think the money would be better spent in the health service.

Anyway, First Aid Ireland are running a baby and child first aid course in dublin on saturday August 11th. Course is taught by a medical doctor http://www.firstaidireland.org/courses-services/paediatric-first-aid-child-and-baby-first-aid/