Summary of experiences from open classes on children’s safety and first aid

The rate of misunderstandings among ordinary parents about children's safety and first aid is at least 60%. As the home is the most common scenario for children's accidental injuries, the capacity gap of first responders is more than three times greater than expected. Moreover, various "Internet celebrity first aid methods" commonly circulated on the Internet have blurred applicable boundaries and must not be copied blindly.

The lecturer did a small test at the beginning. Only 2 of the 12 parents present could tell the correct way to deal with the choking of babies under 1 year old. The rest either said to slap the back hard, or to pick the throat with their hands, and some people were determined to do the Heimlich by pressing the belly. To be honest, I also raised my hand to "press my belly" at that time, and now I'm scared to think about it. When the lecturer demonstrated the baby model, he specifically mentioned that there are currently two mainstream directions in the industry for dealing with choking in young children: The American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines clearly require that infants under 1 year old cannot perform abdominal thrusts for fear of damaging the underdeveloped rib cage and internal organs. Priority should be given to alternating operations of 5 back slaps + 5 chest thrusts. ； The guidelines of the Chinese Society of Emergency Medicine are more flexible. They believe that if a foreign body completely blocks the airway and the situation is extremely critical, abdominal shock can also be used for first aid. However, the priority is to recommend chest compression. There is no absolute right or wrong. It all depends on the emergency level at the scene.

Oh, by the way, the lecturer also said that many parents think that everything will be fine if they buy anti-choking straw cups for their children. In fact, the small parts and soft foods such as mango chunks sucked into the straw cups can still choke. My family had stocked several anti-choking cups before, but I changed them to open cups when I went back that day. Anyway, my children have reached the age where they should use them.

I stepped into a big hole last year. My child stuffed a button battery into his nasal cavity. I quickly used tweezers to remove it. Seeing that he didn't cry or fuss and could breathe normally, I didn't take it seriously. When the lecturer said that day, my back instantly went cold: button batteries are highly corrosive and can be found in the nasal cavity and... In a closed space like the ear canal, the mucous membrane can be corroded and perforated in as little as 2 hours. Even if you can see it is clean with the naked eye, you still have to go to the hospital for an endoscopy to check whether there is any residual electrolyte. My blind cat encountered a dead mouse, and I just happened to take it out early enough, so no serious problems occurred.

Not only were there emergencies such as choking and foreign objects entering the body, but my previous treatment of burns and scalds was also ridiculously wrong. My baby's hands were burned by a cup of hot water. My mother-in-law wanted to apply toothpaste, but I insisted on applying aloe vera gel. I felt that I was raising the baby scientifically. As a result, the lecturer said that there is a lot of controversy in this part: one school is from the perspective of evidence-based medicine, which believes that as long as it is a burn or scald, the only correct operation is to rinse it with running cold water for 15-30 minutes. No toothpaste, aloe vera, or soy sauce can be used. It will not only cause infection, but also cover the injury and affect the doctor's judgment. ； The other school of thought is based on grassroots clinical experience. If there is only a slight first-degree burn with red skin and no blistering, and if cold water cannot be found at the scene, applying a small amount of sterile Vaseline can temporarily relieve the pain, but it is absolutely not recommended to use any home remedies. There was an aunt in class that day who said that her granddaughter had burned her hands and applied soy sauce last year, which left a patch of light brown pigmentation, which has not gone away for almost a year now. It made my skin crawl.

There is also the old method that my mother believed in before: "If you have a febrile convulsion, you have to pinch the person's middle part and put a towel in it." Now the differences are even greater. The traditional first aid experience is that children are afraid of biting their tongues and passing out, so they have to pry something into their mouth or pinch someone to wake them up. However, the latest clinical data shows that more than 90% of children with febrile convulsions will resolve themselves within 3 minutes. Not only does pinching have no clear awakening effect, but it is easy to pinch the local skin. Stuffing things in the mouth may also cause suffocation by foreign objects. Now mainstream guidelines recommend that children just lie on their sides, clean up the secretions from the mouth and nose, and wait until the convulsions are over before sending them to the hospital. However, there are also many veteran pediatricians who have been practicing medicine for 20 or 30 years. They feel that pinching people does have the effect of stimulating awakening in some children, and they cannot be killed with one stroke. I now feel that no matter which view is correct, it is always right to lie on your side and not stuff things randomly. If you are really unsure, just call 120, which is better than doing it blindly.

After the class, the first thing I did when I got home was to go through the medicine cabinet at home. I replaced the adult iodine I bought earlier with 0.5% children's povidone-iodine. I put all the pistachios, button batteries, and utility knives on the coffee table into a high, locked drawer. I also took my husband and simulated three first-aid operations for a choking baby in front of the instructional video. Before, both of us could only use fists to push against the stomach, but now we finally remembered to turn the baby over first, hold the head and face, and pat the back.

In the past, I always liked to save content about "learning children's first aid in one minute" while watching short videos, thinking that if I watched more, I could become half a family doctor. After taking the class this time, I realized that children's first aid cannot be learned in just one minute. The treatment methods for different ages and different injuries are very different. As the lecturer said, children's bodies are like newly grown tender tofu, and problems may occur if you use a little force. Learn more from the knowledge provided by formal institutions and believe less in the confusing folk remedies on the Internet. If you encounter trouble, don’t panic. Call 120 first. It’s better than anything else.