It goes without saying how important our little angel’s are. But would we really know what to do if they choked, sustained a burn, fainted…? This is pretty close to my heart (and Craig’s) given Dexter has already been hospitalised twice in his short little life. We were lucky and got to A&E in plenty of time before a Strep B blood infection caused him any major suffering, but I remember all too well how scary the experience was.
On both occasions, one of us had been alone with Dex when the symptoms started. It’s awful being alone with a child when something goes wrong. I remember frantically trying to call Craig when he was out wetting Dexter’s head - I guess I just wanted validation that something was wrong and I wasn’t overreacting. As ridiculous as it seems, you start to blame yourself (and each other) and it can put enormous strain on even the closest of relationships.
Dexter at the Royal Berkshire Hospital aged 6 weeks - He was so ill
Since learning that The British Red Cross are commencing a new nationwide campaign to get all parents learning first aid, we just had to get involved.
The campaign was launched in response to a survey showing that most parents don’t feel confident about what to do if their child were injured. In a survey of over 2,000 parents (undertaken by Bounty) 96% of respondents agreed that all parents should have some first aid knowledge. The study identified the main fears of parents as choking, treating an unconscious baby or child and meningitis – however despite this, many parents struggle to find the time to learn how to treat these cases.
Joe Mulligan, British Red Cross head of first aid education, commented:
We know that the majority of parents want to learn first aid, but may not get round to it for all sorts of reasons. We’re asking parents to set themselves this challenge – learn something, no matter how much time you have. Even 15 minutes is enough to learn something that could make all the difference in an emergency
With over 24,000 parents expected to attend the Baby Show Earls Court over three days, the British Red Cross First Aid Challenge will be launching at the popular event this October 26. Parents will be able to kick-off the challenge with training sessions taking place every hour. But the good news is that you don’t have to be an attendee to get involved. The website will also launch the same day, featuring free videos, emergency advice and information on first aid courses around the UK – the campaign will also encourage parents to download a letter to send to head teachers to ask local schools to teach first aid in the classroom.
Signing up to the First Aid Challenge is completely free and each participant will receive information on how to deal with day-to-day mishaps confidently and updates about free first aid demonstrations across the UK. Alternatively, if parents prefer to keep a how-to hard-copy in the house, a brand new First Aid manual focussing on treatment for babies and children is available now, priced £10.99.
Tracey Turner from the British Red Cross said:
We hope this challenge will make all parents stop, think and decide to learn some first aid. We all know that as children grow and explore, inevitably they will have some kind of accident, be it big or small. We are passionate about giving everyone the skills and the confidence to know what to do.
Both Craig and I are signed up and we’ll be taking a quick crash course at the Baby Show Earl’s Court on Saturday. I urge all my readers to sign up to the course and get involved too.
You can follow the British Red Cross on Twitter (@BritishRedCross)- they need our help to spread the message so get RT’ing any campaign tweets you see!
