Lac qui Parle County Minnesota | A lot of good advice. As an EMT, I can't recommend it enough to take a cpr course.
Yes the trend is to get away from giving breaths. The biggest reason is that they want lay people to atleast attempt to do SOMETHING. Can't tell you how many times we come on a cardiac and everyone is just standing around doing nothing. But, I don't blame people for not wanting to do mouth to mouth. You don't know what kind of diseases or infections a downed stranger may have. The research has shown that just moving the chest wall will give enough air movement for adequate perfusion UNTIL professional help arrives.
Now, as an EMT and a farmer, I'm going to make a few suggestions. If you have a good CPR instructor, tell them that you want to learn "healthcare provider" cpr. EMS providers still give breaths during cpr. If you have long way to go to a hospital, it would be better for infants and toddlers to have the breaths along with the compressions. Just my opinion, but I just feel the air exchange would be better, but then, I've been an EMT for 20 years so I think old school. The biggest thing to remember is that there is NO wrong way to do CPR. Anything is better than nothing.
The bigger concern for your infant and soon to be toddler will be choking. Most infant/toddler cpr and airway management concerns come from kids choking on food or some other airway obstruction. Remember that their airways are about the size of your wife's little finger so it doesn't take much to obstruct it.
Learning cpr will help give a little peace of mind to know that if something does happen, you should be able to effectively respond. |
Infant CPR
