If you interact regularly with children, you know accidents will inevitably happen. Fortunately, most often these child incidents are insignificant and result in simple scrapes and bruises. Children and their parents or guardians generally accept that minor injuries and illnesses are part of growing up. However there are times when children and infants suffer from significant medical problems requiring first aid treatment for children. Automobile accidents, serious falls, choking, severe bleeding, near drowning, poisoning and allergic reactions can be very frightening and devastating for children, parents and emergency rescuers.
Emergency Responders learn how to handle first aid for kids and situations involving injured or ill children and infants, and you may make a huge difference to the outcome. Although you cannot control all the variables, your assistance may improve a child's chances of a positive recovery. When you are willing to help, you become an important link between the onset of the problem and the early arrival of emergency medical personnel. Assuming that Emergency Medical Services are available in your area, your role would be to provide basic life support and first aid for children until you are relieved by professional medical care.
UNICEF Accidental Deaths and Children
It is often a misconception, but lay rescuers using first aid treatment on children and infants follow the same priorities of care that is used by medical professionals. Child and baby first aid, CPR, choking, and other life threatening injury treatments and procedures for lay person rescuers are based on the same standards of care as used by local emergency services.
Intentional and unintentional injuries are the leading cause of child deaths in the world's more-developed countries and account for almost 40% of child deaths aged 1 - 14
Boys are 70% more likely to die from an injury than girls
Traffic accidents, intentional injuries, drownings, falls, fires, poisonings and other accidents kill more than 20,000 children every year in developed countries
- 41% accounts for traffic accidents
- 15% accounts for drowning
- 7% accounts for fire
- 4% accounts for falls
- 2% accounts for poisoning
- 1% accounts for firearm incidents
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