A collection of sample essays on children’s safety and first aid

The priority of child safety protection is always higher than first aid practice. Ordinary parents and early childhood education practitioners do not need to master a full set of clinical first aid skills. They only need to understand the handling logic of three types of high-frequency accidents: choking, trauma, and burns. At the same time, leaving enough room for judgment on controversial solutions in different scenarios, they can cover more than 90% of daily children's risks, and do not need to fall into the anxiety of "having to learn all the knowledge before daring to raise a baby."

When I took the Red Cross first aid certificate exam three years ago, the instructor's first sentence was "The best first aid is when you don't need first aid at all." At that time, I thought it was correct nonsense until I bumped into a 3-year-old kid at the gate of the community last year and my grandma picked him up from school. I bought some jelly on the road, but the baby fell while eating it while walking. The whole jelly went straight into his trachea, and his face turned purple from holding it in. My grandma hugged him and patted him on the back randomly for half a minute, but there was no response. I happened to pass by and performed the Heimlich maneuver for less than 10 seconds, and the jelly spurted out. After talking about this matter with first aid practitioners in different fields, I learned that there have always been two different operating logics for choking treatment: the mainstream Red Cross training system advocates that as soon as there are signs of choking (inability to speak, inability to cough effectively, and blue lips), the Heimlich punch should be initiated immediately However, some pediatric emergency doctors suggest that if the child can still cough on his own, even if the cough is intermittent, external intervention is not recommended - the expulsion efficiency of foreign bodies in spontaneous coughing is much higher than that of external impact. Indiscriminate operation may push the foreign body deeper into the bronchus, making it more difficult to remove. Later, my own child got stuck in an orange petal once. He coughed and his face turned red but he could still make a sound. I couldn't bear it for 3 seconds and he spat out the orange petal after coughing twice. Before, I might have slapped him on the back in a panic.

Oh, by the way, when it comes to eating food stuck in the throat, the most common misunderstanding I have seen is to feed whole nuts or jelly to babies under 3 years old. Last time, my maternal and child friend told me that they received at least 5 cases of babies with nuts stuck in the throat in the emergency department every month. The youngest was only 10 months old. Grandma secretly fed peanuts, and finally took them out after a bronchoscopy. Really, if you put more small parts and whole nuts at home in high places, it will be more effective than learning 10 kinds of Heimlich maneuvers.

When I was giving safety lectures in kindergartens, I also encountered quarrels between teachers and parents over the treatment of trauma: the child broke his knee while running, and the teacher disinfected it with iodophor and put a band-aid on it. When the parents came to pick up the child, they pointed to the popular science on the Internet and said, "Nowadays, every scrape must be ventilated, and you can't put a band-aid on it. You are harming my child." In fact, both of these statements are correct. There is no unified standard at all: if it is a minor scratch, the amount of bleeding is small, and the environment is clean, letting it dry can indeed speed up the recovery of scabs. ； But if the wound is stained with sand, or the baby has to touch it and run around, putting a sterile band-aid on it can isolate bacteria and avoid secondary infection. My own child broke his forehead in a park last year. The wound was a bit deep and bleeding. I didn't dare to apply iodine or put a band-aid on it. I pressed the wound with a clean cotton towel and ran to the hospital. When I was getting stitches, the doctor said I did it right - if I had applied disinfectant casually, it would have affected the doctor's judgment of the degree of contamination of the wound.

I have also experienced burns, which are the most common burns in winter. Last year, my baby knocked over the hot water poured out of the hand warmer, and the back of my hand turned red. My first reaction was to hold it under the faucet and wash it with running cold water. After about 20 minutes of washing, I wrapped it in clean gauze and went to the hospital. The doctor said that the treatment was very standardized. Later, I read a popular science article from a pediatrician saying that if you have a large area of ​​burn, or the skin has blistered and ulcerated, you should not pour cold water casually, as this can easily cause hypothermia injury and infection. You should directly cover it with a sterile dressing and send it to the doctor immediately. I checked the latest version of the "First Aid Guidelines for Burns and Scalds in Children in China". It is indeed handled on a case-by-case basis. There has never been a "one-size-fits-all" operating standard.

Don’t think that knowing all the first aid knowledge by heart means everything will be fine. I have stepped through more pitfalls in safety protection than in first aid. I was afraid that my baby would bump into the corners of the table, so I bought food-grade soft silicone anti-collision strips and covered the edges and corners of all the furniture in my house. However, one day when I turned around to wash the dishes, my baby chewed off a small piece of the anti-collision strip and stuffed it into his mouth. He coughed for a long time and his face was covered. It turned red, but fortunately he vomited it out in the end. I tore off all the anti-collision strips that day, and later taught him to walk around the corner of the table when walking. Now he can avoid the furniture when running and playing, but he bumps into less than when the anti-collision strips were attached. There are also those child safety locks. I installed all the drawers and cabinet doors before, but one time my baby locked the door of the storage room by himself. I looked for the key for a long time to open the door. The baby was crying inside and couldn't breathe. Later, I deliberately left two short drawers without locks, just for his toys, but never got locked again.

I have met many practitioners who work on child safety, and their opinions are actually very different: Xiao Li, who works as a community safety educator, said that she never talks about complicated theories when giving lectures to the elderly. She only teaches two tricks - bend over and pat the back if you choke, and rush cold water immediately if you feel hot. It is enough for the elderly to remember these two tricks. If you talk too much, they will be remembered.； Teacher Zhang from the kindergarten said that she never restricts her children from running and jumping during outdoor activities. She only goes to the venue 20 minutes in advance to pick up all the pebbles, branches, and broken glass. Instead of not letting the children move, it is better to eliminate the risks in advance. ； A friend who works in the pediatric emergency department even told me that he has encountered too many parents who are so panicked that their hands are shaking and they can't even walk because of minor scratches or burns. In fact, most children with minor accidents have strong recovery abilities, and the emotional stability of the parents is more important than any first aid measures.

To be honest, I have compiled dozens of articles with different identities on children’s safety and first aid, but none of them has ever been a universal template. If you are an ordinary parent, you don’t have to force yourself to memorize all first aid operations. Spending two minutes every day to check whether the hot water kettle at home is placed low, whether there are coin buttons on the coffee table, and whether the medicine box is placed out of reach of the child, is better than anything else. ； If you are a preschool education or community worker, don't hold everyone to one set of standards. Different children and different scenarios should be flexibly adjusted. After all, we learn so much and pay so much attention to it. In the final analysis, we just want our children to grow up happily and safely.