Handling Emergencies

 

Your job in a real emergency is to calmly collect information and call for help. If you can reassure   your child in the meantime, so much the better. 

• Find out phone numbers of your nearest doctor, the nearest poison control center, hospital and clinic,  and  your  fire and  police departments. These members should  be on or near your phone, with other numbers that are appropriate. 

•  Respond immediately to breathing emergencies, without  waiting for help . Any time drowning , choking  or other emergencies cause a child to stop breathing, you need to act at once . If your child has choked on a soled object but can breathe, deep him calm and get him to a doctor rather that attempting to remove the object yourself.

• Take the time  to  gather  information before phoning. Assess the problem carefully before calling , anticipating the  questions you will be  asked . Typical questions cover a description of the  symptoms or injury, pertinent surrounding etc.

• Try to avoid phoning for help while holding a crying child . 

• Never induce vomiting without  being told to do so. Some poisons ( acid and petroleum compounds ) cause mouth burns or can be breathed in to  the lungs when vomited   

 

 

Transporting Children to help

When sick or injured children must be moved to  medical help, your first  concern should  be to reach your  destination without  having an accident. Accidents happen easily to parents who are distracted, concerned, and  driving too fast. 

• Get someone to accompany you and the child if possible. The presence of a friend is reassuring, and it leaves you free to concentrate on driving, plan your route carefully so you don't increase the chances for an accident by getting lost and panicking. 

• Call for an ambulance if your child has neck or back injuries.

• Protect broken limbs or fingers against  further injury , Immobilize  the broken limb with homemade splints or slings, or  tape the broken finger against a healthy one to keep it from moving.

• Keep the car's climate comfortable. Some parents seem to think cold night air will hurt a sick or  feverish child , and so they run the heater so hot that they raise the fever.

Calming and reassuring your child

doctors and parents alike experience the occasional frustration of finding that almost any king of ache or pain can magically disappear by the time they get an ailing child to the clinic or emergency room . Evidently just the prospect of treatment or the kindly reassurance of medical personnel can have a certain curative effect.  After all pain escalates as fear increases. 

In most cases, you can work some of this  magic on your child. If you combine competence,  calmness, and  comfort in your treatment , you may not make the pain disappear, but your child will probably feel better anyway. 

•  be honest about the situation. It doesn't make sense to try to convince a child who's just scraped a knee that it doesn't hurt ,it does hurt. It may help to explain what you're doing to a toddler, and for any child it may be good to remind him that the pain won't last more than a short  while ( but don't make false promises).

• Try distracting a child from his discomfort and pain, cuddling, holding  hands, stroking foreheads, and other expressions of  affection all have a place in ministering to sick and injured children, too.  Deep breathing , talk about other subjects, encouraging the child to look away or to count and recite things may in part block pain impulses from reaching the brain.