Thanks to Jaime H. and her awesome CPR notes I'd like to repost here so we never forget how to do it:
Infant CPR basics:
- If it looks like the baby is not breathing, tap her foot or tickle or even lightly pinch her leg, to see if she responds
- If nothing, tilt her head up slightly and put your cheek and ear by her mouth: listen to see if you hear her breathing, see if you can feel breath on your cheek, and watch her chest to see if it’s moving (all done at once to save time)
- If still nothing, if someone else is there, instruct them to find a telephone to call for help. If you’re by yourself BEGIN CPR BEFORE CALLING 911 (this was news to me.)
- To do Infant CPR, tilt the baby’s head up by their chin, open your mouth wide and COVER BOTH THE BABY’S MOUTH AND NOSE. Give 2 breaths and watch to make sure their chest moves. Then WHILE STILL KEEPING THEIR HEAD TILTED BACK, use two fingers in the middle of their chest – about one finger’s width below the imaginary line connecting their nipples – and PUSH DOWN PRETTY HARD (much harder than I would’ve thought) AND FAST, 30 TIMES. It’s important to keep their head tilted back while you’re doing this because this enables the air to get out and not get stuck. After pushing for 30 times, breath 2 breaths again and then another 30 pushes. REPEAT THIS 5 TIMES before calling for help (if you are alone)
Other interesting tid-bits / helpful hints I did not know about before:
- If you call 911 for a medical emergency, they will transfer you to the fire dept. Therefore, you can save time by either a) calling fire dept directly, or b) if you call 911, as soon as they answer and ask ‘what’s your emergency’ – just say “PLEASE TRANSFER ME TO THE FIRE DEPT, I HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY’.
- The avg wait time in California on 911 is 11 minutes!!! Fri and Saturdays are the slowest. That is why it is important to begin CPR and do 5 rounds of it BEFORE calling. After that, if you call and are put on hold or still ringing, you can put the phone next to you (or on speaker). The important thing to know is 4-6 min w/o oxygen to the brain can lead to mild brain damage, 6-8 min leads to medium brain damage, and 8-10 leads to severe. After 10min, a baby could be potentially brain dead. Scary, I know, but that’s why it’s all the more important to start CPR asap!
- Most of you probably know this, but landline is always better to use if possible when calling for help, they can’t trace the cell phones and 911 from a cell phone actually goes to highway patrol.
Last couple things about choking, burns, and poisons (also from the class last night)
- POISON: Be careful of tomato plants, poinsettias, and oleander plants – these are all poisonous if baby touches then puts hands in mouth (I didn’t know that, so thought I’d pass along)
- BURNS: If a baby touches water 130 degrees or hotter, it takes less than 30 seconds to get 2nd and 3rd degree burns. One thing you can do to prevent accidents is to set your water heater to max 120 degrees. If the baby is in 120 degree water, it can still get severe burns but will take 5 minutes, so hopefully you can catch before that.
- CHOKING: If a baby is choking on something, first turn them over, hold them on your forearm, and whack them 5 times in the middle of their back (again, pretty hard), but support their neck/head with your hand so you don’t accidentally shake their heads. After that, if still choking, turn them over and do chest compressions (same as above, 2 fingers, straight down, hard, etc.) for 5 pushes. Then flip over and whack for 5 again. Keep repeating until the thing is out.
