WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW INFANT & CHILD CPR
Susan McCloskey, President of Nanny Poppinz Corporate, Inc. & volunteer instructor for the American Red Cross
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| Partners in saving the lives of infants and children. |
Consider the following statistics from the safe kids campaign:
- Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death among children ages 14 and under.
- Each day in the U.S., 15 children die from unintentional injury.
- In 2000, the leading cause of fatal unintentional injury to infants and children was motor vehicle occupant injury (28%) followed by drowning (16%) and airway obstruction (14%).
- Children under the age of 1 have the highest rate of unintentional injury-related death- more than twice that of all children. Airway obstruction is the leading killer (60%) of this age group.
- Children ages 1-4 have the second highest rate of unintentional injury-related death. Drowning is the leading killer (27%) of this age group.
- The unintentional injury death rate for boys is nearly 1.5 times higher than girls. This is primarily due to greater exposure to activities that result in injury and patterns of risk taking and rough play. Also, parental standards of supervision may differ by sex.
- Injuries tend to occur when a task's demands exceed the child's ability to safely complete it.
An emergency (airway obstruction or drowning), with an infant or child (ages 0-8) is more likely to involve a breathing problem. If not corrected, breathing problems lead to cardiac arrest and death. Knowing infant & child CPR which includes learning how to deal with breathing emergencies such as choking is a step one can take towards preventing unnecessary death in infants and children. The purpose of the American Red Cross Infant & Child CPR class is to give individuals the knowledge and skills necessary to recognize and provide basic care for breathing and cardiac emergencies in infants and children until advanced medical personnel arrive and take over care.
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