Sample summary of children's safety and first aid experience

The core of child safety protection has never been to pursue "zero accidents", but to identify 80% of high-frequency risks in advance and make plans； The first principle of children's first aid is always to "avoid your own risks first, and then avoid secondary harm to the child." Any operation that skips these two prerequisites may cause more serious consequences.

Speaking of this, some people may think that I am too conservative. After all, there are popular science articles everywhere on the Internet now: "After learning these tricks, children don't have to panic when accidents occur." It seems that memorizing all the moves will make you foolproof. To be honest, I thought the same way when I first started giving lectures. It wasn’t until I encountered an incident in the community last year that I completely changed my mind.

That afternoon, a grandma rushed over with her 2-year-old grandson who had choked on toffee. Her face was purple from suppressing her emotions. The daughter-in-law who was following her held up her mobile phone and shouted, "Use the Heimlich!" Shoot upside down! ”Grandma grabbed the child's ankles, lifted it up, and slapped her on the back. I quickly stepped forward to stop him - this child was only 24 pounds and less than 1 and a half years old. How could he withstand being swayed upside down like this? Finally, I used the back-slapping and chest-pressing technique for babies under 1 year old. The toffee spit out after the third pat. The moment the baby cried, my back was covered in sweat.

Later, I deliberately read the first aid guides of different institutions and found that there have always been different practical directions for dealing with choking in young children: the American Heart Association's guidelines emphasize that as long as the child can cough and make sounds on his own, there should be no hasty intervention to prevent foreign objects that are not tightly stuck from falling into deeper airways.； Domestic pediatric first aid schools recommend that young children intervene immediately after choking to avoid rapid suffocation. Both of these statements are supported by clinical data. There is no absolute right or wrong. The core judgment standard is actually one: whether the child can breathe normally and make sounds.

In the past, many parents came to me to make a list of potential safety hazards at home, and they would "block all risks" as soon as they opened the door. I have seen the most exaggerated parents. Not only were all table corners and wall corners covered with anti-collision strips, but even the hot water bottle was locked in the cupboard, and the seat belt on the dining chair had to be buckled three times at a time. As a result, last year, the child climbed on the sofa and stepped on the air, knocking on the lid of a stainless steel thermos cup placed on the edge of the coffee table, and requiring two stitches on his forehead.

Don't tell me, many people really fall into this misunderstanding of "all-encompassing protection". There are actually two completely different ideas in the industry regarding children's home protection: one is the "environmental adaptation school", which advocates that all risk points should be completely eliminated in the activity areas for children under 3 years old, which is suitable for situations where parents leave temporarily and no one is watching. ； The other school is the "risk perception school", which advocates that children should be exposed to mild risks under the premise of parental supervision. For example, letting them touch the wall of a 40-degree thermos cup to know what "hot" feels like, and actively walking around a sharp table corner can actually reduce the probability of encountering unfamiliar risks when going out. I have conducted a small-scale test with the children of my relatives. The children of the latter will take the initiative to call for adults when they see broken glass on the ground. The former will curiously reach out to pick up the broken glass because they have never seen such "dangerous items".

I talked to Dr. Li from the emergency department of the Children's Hospital last year, and he said that the most troublesome thing is the "homespun first aid" that parents use on their own: stuck fish bones in steamed buns, scalding them with toothpaste, banging their heads and rubbing them hard. It was originally a small problem, but in the end it turned into a serious problem that required hospitalization. Of course, there is also the other extreme, that is, you don’t dare to move anything. If your child falls and gets a nosebleed, you have to hold him and wait for 120 seconds. Instead, you miss the best time to stop the bleeding.

In fact, when you really encounter an emergency, you don’t have to force yourself to become a professional emergency doctor. Most ordinary parents can do three things: first, don’t panic. First, judge whether there are any secondary risks around you. For example, if your child gets an electric shock, pull the switch first. Don’t pull him up.； The second is to memorize several core judgment criteria: whether you vomited after you dropped your head, whether your consciousness is clear, whether you can make a sound when you choke, whether your face changes, and whether there are blisters after being permed. These are much more useful than memorizing complicated operations. ； The third is to call 120 directly when you are unsure and follow the operator’s instructions step by step. This is 10,000 times more reliable than the half-baked popular science you found on your phone.

Having been in this business for almost 4 years, my biggest feeling is actually that you don’t have to worry too much about “child safety” and you don’t have to force yourself to memorize all the first aid knowledge points. After all, children grow up by stumbling, and you cannot raise them in a sterile glass cover. Rather than learning 100 first aid methods, it is better to look at your children more often when you go out, put hot water and medicines at home out of their reach, and don’t panic when something happens.