Children's safety and first aid experience sample essay

The core of children's safety is always "prevention is better than rescue". First aid ability is only the last line of defense. In practice, the most common pitfalls are mistaking empirical remedies as standard operations, equating "prevention" with buying a bunch of safety supplies, and repeatedly hesitating on the border of whether to send a child to the hospital, which delays treatment time.

At the end of spring last year, I happened to run into a dangerous situation when I was walking my baby in the community: 2-year-old Haohao secretly grabbed the jelly in the hands of an adult and stuffed it into his mouth. He didn’t chew it twice before it got stuck in his trachea. His face was instantly bruised from the pain and he couldn’t even speak. Grandma was so anxious that she stretched out her hand to scratch his throat, and even said that she would pat his back and let him go. Fortunately, a pediatric nurse happened to be passing by, stopped the old man, squatted down and performed the Heimlich maneuver on the baby for 30 seconds. When half a piece of jelly was coughed out, the whole family broke out in a cold sweat.

I later lectured on this matter many times in missionary classes, and each time I mentioned two completely different processing logics: the older generation of empiricists always think that if something gets stuck, just pick it, slap it on the back, or drink vinegar and swallow rice if the fish bone gets stuck. These methods are not It's completely useless - if the foreign object happens to be stuck in a very shallow position in the oropharynx, it's really no problem to reach out and dig it out. But if it has slipped into the trachea, patting, picking or swallowing rice balls will only push the foreign object deeper, and even get stuck in the airway, causing suffocation. The current standard of evidence-based medicine is that for children under 1 year old who are conscious and have a foreign object stuck in their throat, they should use "5 back pats + 5 chest compressions" alternately. For children over 1 year old, use abdominal thrusts. If they have lost consciousness, they must immediately perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Don't waste time trying home remedies. Oh, by the way, I have also seen otolaryngologists argue about stuck fish bones: some doctors said that if there is a stuck fish bone, don’t mess around and come to the hospital to get it. Some doctors said that if it is a small soft bone, the baby has no obvious sting and the swallowing is normal, you can observe it for a long time. There is no need to make a special trip. My own experience is that as long as the baby complains of pain, drools, and refuses to swallow, don’t hesitate to go directly to the ear, nose and throat, it is much safer than pouring vinegar at home.

I have a strong say when it comes to "prevention". When I first became a father, I followed the trend and bought two large boxes of safety supplies: bumper strips, safety locks, drawer buckles, and stair railings. I spent one night plastering them all over the house. The next day, I found that my one-year-old son had pulled off half of the bumper strip from the corner of the table, stuffed it into his mouth and chewed it with relish. I was so frightened that I quickly reached out and pulled it out, and tore off all the lower bumper strips that day. Later, when I checked the information on pediatric nursing, I found that there have been two views in this business: one group advocates hard renovation of the whole house to block all risk points so that the baby will not be injured even if it is casually made; the other group advocates "controllable risk exposure". For example, don't wrap the bag too tightly at the table, so that the baby will know the pain if he bumps once, and he will hide when he runs in the future, making it less likely to fall. I later made a compromise: the sharp corners of the cabinets and the corners of the floor-to-ceiling windows were still wrapped, but the sides of the low coffee table were left untouched. My baby did knock it once, and there was a small bump on his forehead. He cried for ten minutes and it was fine. Later, when he ran away, he never leaned against the edge of the coffee table, so it was considered a mistake. Don’t think that everything will be fine if you buy enough safety supplies. When you have time, squat down and walk around your home at child’s height. You will find that the scissors under the coffee table, the coins in the seams of the sofa, and the tablecloth hanging down on the dining table are all hidden dangers. If you don’t clean up these things, no matter how many anti-collision strips you put on them, it will be useless.

There is another point that everyone is most confused about: Should the baby be sent to the hospital if he is injured? Last year, a parent came to me for consultation. He said that his baby fell off the sofa and cried for two minutes before he was fine. He should play and eat, but he suddenly vomited in the middle of the night and was sent to the hospital for a minor intracranial hemorrhage. Fortunately, he was sent to the hospital in time and nothing serious happened. There is currently no unified conclusion in the pediatric community regarding whether CT should be performed after a head fall. Some doctors are afraid of missing a diagnosis and advocate doing CT scans as long as the head falls. Some doctors believe that CT scans have radiation. As long as the baby is in good spirits and has no vomiting, lethargy or abnormal body movements, it can be observed at home for 48 hours. There is no need to suffer that penalty. My advice to parents has always been: don’t impose rigid standards. If you are not sure, go to the hospital. Even if the trip is in vain, it is better than guessing at home and delaying things. Last time, a parent asked me if I could bring a first aid kit with me for my child. I think that unless you take your child to go camping in the suburbs, there is really no need to walk in the community. If something happens, it is much faster to go to a community hospital than to dig out iodine for yourself.

To be honest, after having been a missionary for so long, what I am most afraid of hearing is "I thought it was okay" and "This is how I came here when I was a child." Times have changed, and today's medical conditions and parenting environment are different. Spending an extra half an hour learning Heimlich, squatting down more often to check for hidden dangers at home, and when something goes wrong don't first think about using folk remedies, is better than anything else. After all, when it comes to your baby's safety, there is never any regret medicine to take.