Would you know what to do if your little one was choking? Give them backslaps? Great. But what if backslaps aren’t working? What if your baby stops breathing? What would you do? Your actions during those terrifying few minutes could literally be a matter of life or death.
Statistics show that a huge SIX out of TEN deaths caused by injuries and accidents could be prevented if we all had a basic knowledge of first aid. My pre children career didn’t require any first aid knowledge and I’m a natural born panicker – my head starts swimming and my brain shuts down at the slightest hint of trouble. The thought of something bad happening to the Mini Mumblers on my watch has always terrified me so when I was invited along to a Baby and Child First Aid class with First Aid Five I couldn’t wait to get there.
First Aid Five’s classes are ran by the incredibly helpful and extremely knowledgeable Brandon and take place at Total Fitness in Wilmslow. Brandon is a First Responder, meaning he’s dispatched to 999 calls to administer first aid until an ambulance can get there. His vast first hand experience and sheer enthusiasm for what he does makes him the perfect person to teach mums, dads, grandparents, nursery nurses and anyone else in charge of little ones how to deal with an emergency.
The amount of information covered in the class is vast – as well as teaching vital basic CPR both for adults and specifically for children and then babies (the techniques are quite different), Brandon covers everything from my worst fear – choking – to burns, asthma, broken limbs and so much more. He also teaches you how to spot the early signs of sepsis even though it’s not on the official ‘syllabus’ yet (he’s campaigning for it to be brought in). Brandon breaks up the theory with real life stories (did you know a child could have a 40 plus temperature and not feel hot?!) and there’s plenty of opportunity to have a go at what you’ve learned on the state of the art dummies.
I knew how important it was for me to do a course like this to enable me to help my babies in the (hopefully unlikely) event they ever needed me to but wasn’t sure how interesting or easy I’d find it as its all totally out of my comfort zone – I feel faint when ripping a plaster off my son’s arm. Amazingly though, I found it fascinating. Brandon’s easy manner and course delivery struck just the right balance between laying out the sometimes terrifying realities of what can unfortunately happen to little ones, and reassuring us that in the unlikely event these events ever come to pass, we were learning the tools to enable us to help.
I came away feeling so much more confident and empowered. The proof of the pudding came just a few days later when my 2 year old was eating breakfast. He suddenly started coughing and seemed to be struggling. In a second, I’d whipped him up and started the back slaps Brandon had taught me to use in a choking incident whilst mentally going through the steps we’d learned. It turned out to be a small errant piece of apple peel so my Mrs Doubtfire manoeuvres might have been a bit overkill (!!) but I was amazed by how much I’d taken in from the course and the confidence/presence of mind it had given me. I can’t stress the importance of anyone involved in taking care of children in any capacity doing a course like this and First Aid Five’s is outstanding. I’ve made a promise to myself that I’ll go back and do refreshers every year so I can hopefully maintain the skills I’ve learned.
The classes are for grown ups only (Brandon also runs classes for families which children as young as 7 can attend). Everyone at the one I attended was a grandparent who cared for their grandchildren whist the parents were at work which I thought was great. When he originally told me that little ones couldn’t attend I was a little surprised given that a lot of the people who’d need to do the course would presumably be mums with babies. Brandon explained that the content was so detailed and important he was keen everyone who attended could give it their full concentration and really take something valuable away. Having done it, I couldn’t agree more. The course isn’t just a ‘tick box’ – its vital that you really understand how to deal with an emergency and to do that, you need to concentrate.
If you’re lucky enough to have childcare, you could make a morning or afternoon of it and grab lunch or a coffee in the Total Fitness Cafe afterwards – anyone doing the course can claim a half price day pass to use the facilities as well. If you don’t have childcare, no problem – as luck would have it a Pay As You Go creche is just about to open at Total Fitness and is open to members and non members.
For more information check out the website here and to book a class with First Aid Five click here.
We were invited to attend the class for the purposes of preparing this review but the opinions expressed are entirely our own 😊
