Preschool children’s safety and first aid experience

The core of preschool children's safety and first aid is always "prevent beforehand, don't panic when rescuing, and don't apply rigid standards." There is no set of solutions that can adapt to all scenarios. The premise of all operations is to first determine the actual state of the child before making a decision. Blindly following online strategies is prone to problems.

In the past two years, our Park Lianhe District Children's Hospital has made statistics. Among the accidental injuries of children aged 3-6, foreign objects stuck in the throat, bumps and bruises, and burns and scalds ranked the top three, accounting for more than 70% in total. 90% of these accidents can actually be prevented in advance. Don't tell me, I used to think that everything would be fine if all dangerous goods were tightly collected. It wasn't until one of the senior class children moved their stools to reach the hot water bottle on the disinfection cabinet that I realized that no matter how strict you are, you can't stop your children's curiosity. There are actually two different schools of thought regarding preschool safety protection: One school advocates "complete isolation of dangers", keeping sharp objects, hot water, and small objects smaller than coins out of the reach of children, including scissors; the other school advocates "moderate exposure to dangers". Under the supervision of adults, children should be allowed to touch a 40-degree thermos cup and use round-headed children's scissors to first establish a concrete understanding of "danger" so that they are less likely to touch it blindly. Our kindergarten is currently trying the second type. A 15-minute safety experience class is held every week for the middle class. In the past two years, the number of accidents involving scissors and knocking over hot water cups has been reduced by two-thirds compared to before. Of course, some parents don't agree and feel that they are letting their children take risks. We will not forcefully advise. Every family has different child-rearing habits, and the one that suits their family is the best.

Don’t panic if something happens. The most chaotic time I have ever encountered was when a middle class child got stuck in a longan core while eating snacks. His face was as suffocated as a purple eggplant and he couldn’t even make a sound when he cried. The teacher in charge was so frightened that his hands were shaking. He took out his mobile phone to check the instructions and said that he should fill the child with water and flush it down. I happened to be nearby at the time and quickly took the child and laid him on my lap to pat his back. After patting the child three times, he spit it out. Later, I told the teacher that if you really have a stuck throat, you should first see if you can make a sound. If you can still cry and talk, it means it is not completely blocked. Don't pat or pour water, and send him to the hospital immediately; if you can't make a sound and your face turns purple, use the Heimlich. Oh, yes, there is also controversy about the applicable age of Heimlich. Many pediatric guidelines say that children under 1 year old cannot perform abdominal thrusts, and can only pat the back and press the sternum. Some friends in the emergency department told me that if there is complete obstruction and suffocation, and patting the back for half a minute is useless, even 10-month-old children can use lighter force to perform abdominal thrusts, which is better than holding it in. Our current plan in the park is to practice both types, and choose based on the situation on site. If you are stuck in age, it will be easy to make mistakes.

Scalds are also the hardest hit area. Last time I met a grandma picking up her child. The child touched the hot water pipe in the guard room, and the back of her hand was as red as a small carrot. The grandma took out the mint toothpaste and was about to apply it. I quickly stopped her and went to the health room to shower with cold water. After 20 minutes, the redness disappeared. Grandma was not happy at the time. She said that they applied it like this in their hometown and it would not blister after applying it. I did not argue with her and turned around and sent her a popular science manual on our cooperation with the emergency department. Later, she came to me specifically to tell me that her grandson’s other hand was burned last time. She rinsed it with cold water for 20 minutes as I told her. As expected, there was no blister. It was better than applying toothpaste. But I don’t completely deny the traditional methods. If you are playing in the suburbs and cannot find cold water, and the child is only slightly red without blistering, there is no problem in applying a little clean white fluoride-free toothpaste to temporarily relieve the pain. As long as you don’t apply colored soy sauce or badger oil with particles, otherwise the doctor will not be able to judge the depth of the wound when you get to the hospital, which will delay the treatment.

To be honest, I used to be a big believer in standardized first aid procedures. Until last year, I met a child who fell on his head while playing on a slide. There was a bulge the size of a quail egg on his forehead. According to the procedure, I had to apply a cold compress for 20 minutes to see if there was vomiting or drowsiness. It turned out that the child was seriously ill. I had severe cold urticaria. After applying an ice pack for two minutes, a red rash appeared all over my body. We quickly stopped and used a warm and cool towel. Changing it every two minutes could also achieve the effect of reducing swelling. From then on, I knew that no procedure is as important as looking at the specific situation of the child first.

In fact, after working in our field for a long time, the biggest lesson I learned is not how many difficult first aid skills I know, but how much I can pay attention to at all times: keep an eye on the children climbing high when doing outdoor activities, remind them not to gobble them up when eating snacks, and ask if there are any toys in their pockets when entering the kindergarten. These small things are more effective than any first aid afterwards. Of course, first aid skills must be practiced regularly. After all, if you are not afraid of ten thousand, you are afraid of the worst. But you must not stop studying. After all, we are dealing with lively children. We are not standardized test questions. Flexible adjustment is the only way to be truly responsible for the children.