Knowing how to perform CPR is essential for people of all ages and walks of life. It’s been proven that bystander CPR has a significant success rate when administered in a timely manner and can significantly boost survival odds.
Knowing how to help infants or children is more important than anything, as they are the most helpless of people in such cases. Because of this, parents, people working with children, and everyone else should take infant CPR classes.
If you are located in Boca Raton, you can look into the many online and regular courses available at all times. Read this detailed guide to learn more about infant CPR classes in Boca Raton and why you should consider getting a CPR certificate as soon as possible!
What Is Infant CPR?
Infant CPR refers to the delicate CPR procedure explicitly designed for infants or babies aged 0-12 months. The procedure you follow differs slightly between different age groups, with infants being the most fragile and needing the most care. So, to perform CPR on an infant right, a person must be positive that they know what they are doing.
Infant CPR Basics
It is best to take infant CPR classes with professional demonstrators, as those people can give you valuable knowledge on the best CPR practices. However, if you cannot find classes that suit your schedule or needs, you can also focus on the infant CPR basics and learn what you must do if you ever encounter an unresponsive infant.
Whether the baby is your own or you encounter a distressed parent seeking help, you can benefit from knowing how to administer CPR until the medical workers arrive on site. We have created a five-step guide to teach you the basics of infant CPR – let’s get right into it:
Step 1 – Check the Baby’s Responsiveness
Before doing anything else, you must check the baby’s responsiveness. You can try shouting a bit louder to see if it reacts. If it does not, consider slightly tapping it on the shoulder or its foot.
If the baby is not responding to anything you do, you should get ready to start administering CPR, but only after contacting 911.
Step 2 – Call for Help
The next thing would be to call for help. You should call 991 yourself if you are the only one around and there is no one to help you. That is because once you start CPR, you should not be stopping to call 991 or do anything else. Always do this before you start CPR.
If there are other people close to you, you can call out to them and have them call 911 or find a medical worker while you start the CPR.
Step 3 – Position the Baby and Yourself Properly
Next, you must find a suitable surface to place the baby. It should be a flat, hard surface, as you cannot do CPR on a soft surface such as a baby carrier or stroller.
Place the baby on the ground if there are no such surfaces around you. You can stand or kneel on the baby’s side, depending on what suits the situation best.
Step 4 – Position the Baby’s Head
Another critical step is to position the baby’s head the right way. You must put one hand on its forehead and slightly tilt the head backward with the other. The titling should be minimal, as moving its head all the way back can cause more harm than good.
While adjusting the baby’s head, it is wise to open its mouth and look for any foreign objects the baby might be choking on. If it is suffocating, try doing this to see if there is anything you can remove to free its airway. You can finally start with CPR if its mouth is completely empty.
Step 5 – Start CPR
Forget everything you know about adult CPR – with infants aged up to a year, you need to position your hands or fingers differently.
Before you think about your hands, we advise doing five rescue breaths, each lasting one second. Ensure you make a tight seal between your mouth and the infant’s mouth. If you have safety or health concerns, consider putting a mask between you and the baby and then doing the rescue breaths.
As soon as you do the breaths, check to see if the infant’s chest moves. If you cannot see movement, you should proceed by doing only compressions. If it moves, you can do both compressions and rescue breaths.
How to Do the Compressions
To do compressions, expose the baby’s chest. Place the index and middle finger or your thumbs between the nipples, just below the nipple line. You’ll have to do hard and fast pushes on the chest, pushing the chest only about 1.5 inches down.
You need to do 30 compressions followed by two rescue breaths. You should aim for 100-120 compressions per minute, but if you are having difficulties keeping up speed, just try singing “Staying Alive” by the Bee Gees to keep yourself from losing rhythm.
You must administer CPR until medical workers arrive and can take over. If there are people around you, you can have them take over whenever you get tired, but only if they can keep up with the rhythm. It is imperative to keep the rhythm and not create pauses between compressions to keep pushing oxygen-rich blood into the infant’s brain.
Why Should You Know Infant CPR?
Knowing how to perform infant CPR is crucial to saving an infant from severe brain damage or death. If left entirely without oxygen, it takes only a few minutes for the brain to deteriorate. So, if you suspect someone has stopped breathing or is suffering from cardiac arrest, you must start CPR as soon as possible.
With infants, asking the parent’s permission to administer CPR is also important. However, if the parents or another guardian aren’t around, it’s up to you to take matters into your own hands and give CPR without permission.
One myth regarding CPR is that you must be trained in it to extend help to someone. However, this is not true. The best thing you could do in an emergency with no medical staff on site is to provide CPR (but with the utmost care). Call 911 and ask the 911 dispatcher to tell you how to do it yourself. After all, CPR is something you should be extremely careful with.
Where to Find Infant CPR Classes?
If you want to take infant CPR classes, there are two options to explore. The first option is to look for organizations that offer live CPR classes you can take. These classes are a great option because you can see a medical professional perform CPR on dolls right in front of you, allowing you to easily see what they are doing and how they are doing it.
Several organizations offer infant and adult CPR classes in Boca Raton. The classes are not that expensive and do not last too long, so you should be able to complete the course and get your certificate within a day or two.
The alternative to live classes is online classes, which are much more convenient for busier people who cannot make time for live classes. This is an excellent option for those who have gone over the course at an earlier time but failed to get the certificate.
Final Words on Infant CPR Classes
We went over a detailed guide on infant CPR classes in Boca Raton. The basic steps involved are checking whether the baby is responsive. If the answer is not, it’s time to call 911 and immediately start performing CPR. The CPR procedure differs for babies up to one year old and should be done in a gentler manner.
Remember that anyone can benefit from an infant CPR certificate, not just parents or those working with infants. You never know when an infant will suffer cardiac arrest or stop breathing, so it is good to know how to help them instead of feeling powerless while standing over them and waiting for the medical personnel to arrive.