Emergency | My Mills Baby

You’re child is never too young to learn about road safety. Nothing terrifies me more than the thought of Dexter flying into the road and being hit by a car. Here are some top tips for teaching your pre-schooler the green cross code basics.

Now Dexter is a fully fledged waddler, he’s constantly on his feet. Of course it’s completely impractical to let him walk to the shops with me - a five-minute trip for me would be a two hour marathon for him! But it won’t be long until he’s walking beside me and exposed to a whole new set of dangers.

Here’s my plan of attack to get Dexter road safe:

Preparing for the walk

It might seem overzealous, but there are a few things every mother should have on her at all times. Luckily these are things that frequently live at the bottom of your handbag anyway. The first is pen and paper. If your child was to have an accident, best to have a notebook available to write down license plates and other details which might be useful for the emergency services. In the event you decide to seek road accident advice from a solicitor, there may also be number of things you might want to recall later.

The second is your mobile phone. It goes without saying if you are involved in any traffic incidents you’ll want stay beside your child when you call 999. As most smartphones also have cameras, if you get the opportunity you might also want to photograph the scene.

Practice makes perfect - Get out of the car!

Not only is walking a great form of exercise for your child, it’ll also help them become responsible pedestrians. It’s maddening that some school age children haven’t mastered the basics because they’ve been ferried around in the car for so long. For short trips, allow a bit of extra of time, set off earlier, and get your child walking.

Maintain contact

Whether you’re using reins, or chose to simply hold hands, make sure you have hold of your little ones when you approach a road. If you are using reins, make sure you limit your childs range so they can’t make a run for it. Don’t trust your child to keep ahold of a pram or pushchair either, it’s always best to have physical contact with them so you can control the pace.

Stop, Look & Listen

This might sounds obvious, but getting your child to remember it could save their life. Tips for getting it to sink in include:

Make it a game: Get your child to identify different vehicles and the sounds they make. Maybe print out a mini checklist so they can cross off all the different passing traffic they see (cars, lorries, buses and bikes). Familiarising them with the different dangers on the road is half the battle.

Make up a song: I’ve been all YouTube all morning trying to find a catchy song that addresses all the key points. Unfortunately they’re all a little too long to sing with your child at the roadside. If you’re child learns well through song, make up one of your own. This will help your child remember the order of the green cross code.

Watch other people: Watch a few people crossing the road and let your child critique their technique. Prepare a checklist and get your child to tick off each of the stages needed for a successful crossing.

Let them press the button

Much like ringing the bell on a bus, children love the idea of controlling the world around them. Most pedestrian crossings will have low buttons now for disabled and younger people. Let them press the button then follow the progress of the lights together.

So what’s your plan of attack? Do you have any tips of your own?

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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.

dex hospital1 Were in! The British Red Cross First Aid Challenge

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’s Word of Mum™ panel) 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^th. 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 (www.redcross.org.uk/firstaidchallenge) 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!