Handling Babysitting Emergencies

[Music] I'm not quite old enough for what I really want to do which is to be a professional firefighter you know though being a good babysitter is in a lot of ways like being a firefighter in both jobs you have a lot of responsibility for other people's safety and training is very important in both because you need to know how to handle whatever situation might come up [Music] a well-trained and experienced babysitter will be so good at preventing trouble he or she will probably never have to handle a serious emergency nonetheless even under the best of conditions an emergency situation could arise and it's much better to have a plan of action worked out ahead of time than to be caught off guard the first thing I do when I arrive on a babysitting job is make friends with the children I'll be caring for the very next thing is I go around with the parent and check the house security we make sure the doors and the windows are locked and the outside lights are on to discourage Intruders if it's a house I'm not too familiar with I also figure how I would get the children and myself out in case there was a fire I like to know there are two ways out of every room and I make a quick drawing which shows how the house or apartment is laid out then I make a note of the exits from each room on the floor plan and if one of the exits is a window I make sure it can be easily opened from the inside some families already have a home escape plan which makes my job easier and it gives me special Comfort to see a home equipped with smoke detectors the whole idea is to think ahead and try to cover all the various possibilities for example if there is a fire there are two things I would immediately do one get the children and myself out two call the fire department as we leave I would close all the doors between me and the fire to keep it from spreading and I would be sure we all crawled under the smoke where the air is better it's important to get out as fast as possible and not let anyone go back in for anything and I don't stop to fight the fire [Music] I would take the children to the neighbors and from there I would call the fire department you can see why it's smart to carry your emergency information right with you the fire department will need to know the correct address and cross streets after I'd called the fire department then I'd call the parents [Music] you're waiting at the neighbors watch over the children if I get phone calls I never let on that the parents are out I always say the parents can't come to the phone right now and I get the name and number and say they'll call back I think the scariest thing is if someone should try to break in while I'm babysitting if someone did try to get in or was peeking in the window or something I will call the police immediately and then I'd call the neighbors and parents right after that I'd make sure the kids were safe while I waited for the police when I'm alone with the kids I don't open the door for anyone unless I called for the police if anyone else comes to the door I don't care who they say they are I just politely tell them to come back tomorrow after I checked the security around the house I try to think of possible hazards kids don't always think before putting things in their mouths and there can be a lot of kinds of poisons around the house medicine cleaning products things like that now if a child should swallow some kind of poison there is something you can do just give the child plenty of milk or plain water right away that will delude the poison you know make the poison weaker in the stomach next call for immediate medical help you should have the number to call right there on your checklist after that call the neighbors and the parents then try to keep the child as comfortable as possible the child who has taken poison could get what are called convulsions which are muscle spasms the body kind of jumps and jerks If the child does have convulsions or is unconscious or even half conscious you wouldn't give them anything to drink because this can make them choke but if they are conscious and don't have convulsions quickly give them plenty of milk or water this will help in most cases and do call immediately for emergency medical help the emergency medical people are going to want to know what kind of poison the person took they try to have the container handy if you can without losing time searching for it when you start thinking of things that can go wrong the list seems endless and you might start to think that babysitting is really dangerous or something but it isn't hardly anything serious ever goes wrong but the point is you've got to be ready in case something does happen what I did was take a course in basic first aid and what that taught me was that there are only a few kinds of major emergencies you know life or death situations first there's any kind of a rescue situation like a fire or someone drowning or something like that I guess an intruder would be a situation where a rescue would be needed which is why you call the police next there's a situation where someone has an accident and they're bleeding or there's a situation where a person stops breathing then there's choking which is a type of breathing emergency and there's poisoning in each of these situations you have to know how to get help as quickly as possible and then be able to give simple but effective first aid until help comes if you're really alert for hazards and keep your attention on the job which is caring for the kids I doubt if you're gonna have any accidents but what if you do what if a child gets cut if a child is bleeding really badly an artery might be cut and they could bleed to death in less than a minute so you'll have to be able to stop the bleeding and the way to do that is to put something over the wound and apply direct pressure you cover the wound with whatever you can grab a towel a handkerchief or you use your bare hand if you have to and you hold it on there it's also good if you elevate the wound then gravity will help slow down the bleeding be sure you keep the pressure on there until experienced help arrives that would be how to handle a major bleeding emergency usually it's not that bad with a minor cutter of scratch you just cleanse the area with soap and water minor burns can be made less painful by applying cold water until it doesn't hurt so much if the burn looks serious call for emergency medical help if for any reason a person's not breathing you have to act fast because they may die within a few minutes [Music] what you do is breathe for them by blowing your air into their lungs [Music] tilt their head back which may help them start breathing again [Music] but if they're still not breathing when you tilt the head back pinch the nose shut take a deep breath put your mouth over their mouth and blow four quick breaths of air into their lungs to start watch the person's chest to see it Rising as you blow in then turn your head to the side to listen as a person exhales and to watch the chest to see that it falls then you repeat the whole thing once every five seconds that will be about 12 breaths per minute if it's an infant or small child you tilt the head back a bit less instead of pinching their nose shut you would put your mouth over their nose and mouth and you would blow air in about 20 times a minute making quicker and shallower breaths than with an older child or adult in all cases you continue to breathe for the person unless the doctor arrives and says you can stop or somebody comes along and takes over from you or when the person starts breathing on their own I worry sometimes that one of the kids I'm watching May choke on something so I'm real careful about noticing small things that they could get hold of and swallow when I'm feeding small children I always cut the food up into tiny pieces if a child was choking I would look to see if he could speak breathe or cough if he can speak or cough that means he can still breathe so I would do nothing but watch closely to make sure he doesn't stop breathing if I start whacking them on the back at this point I might just make it worse usually he'll get it unstuck on his own [Music] now if the person can't speak breathe or cough he may be choking to death and I know he needs help to open his Airway I would whack the child sharply on the spine four times with the heel of my hand which may help to knock the thing out of his throat the baby I would Place him face down on my forearm and whack him on the back the same way but not quite as hard as with the older child [Music] if the back slaps don't work with the older child make a fist with one hand and grasp it with the other placing the thumb side of your fist against the child's stomach slightly above the navel and below the rib cage then press the fist into the child's abdomen with a quick upward motion the idea is to knock the thing out of the throat by forcing a burst of air out of the lungs up through the breathing Passage you do this several times if you have to until the thing comes up and he can breathe again with the baby you place him face up on one arm and with your other hand place two or three fingers on the baby's abdomen between his ribs and his navel make a quick pressing motion with your fingers into the baby's abdomen angled slightly in the direction of his head do that a few times until the bursts of air from his lungs push whatever it is out you should learn how to do this in case you need to save someone who's choking to death but never actually do it to anyone just for fun or practice you could really hurt someone and definitely take a course which will train you to do it properly all the various first aid techniques really need to be learned and practiced in a first aid class and I think every babysitter should have training in first aid and then you know you're really prepared to handle anything that might come up mainly babysitting is really fun and creative I just love kids and I enjoy seeing them learn and they really appreciate it when I take the time to teach them something or read them a story or play their favorite game [Music] and I think of what wonderful training I'm getting but when I have kids of my own [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] foreign foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]