Care For A Drowning Baby

Care For a Drowning Baby | First Aid For Infant Drowning Emergencies

Hey guys, thanks for joining us today. Throwing a post together to talk more about babies and how to respond to an infant that has a drowning emergency. These emergencies can happen in numerous different situations; a bathtub, at the beach or lakes, pool areas, in general any environment where an infant can submerge in water. We also want to acknowledge the risk of babies getting ahold of water bottles and accidentally dumping water on their face or mouth area in volume, which can also result in drowning.

General care steps for drowning:

1. Check: Check the scene to ensure it is safe for you to enter, size up the scene and form an initial impression of what you think is happening.

2. Call: Immediately call 911 or the designated emergency number and get the AED and First aid Kit if available. If you are with others, have someone else call right away. If you are alone, call 911 and put your phone on speaker so you can move to step 3…

3. Care: When a baby is not responding and we determine they are not breathing, begin CPR cycles immediately.

a. Give 2 breaths first for drowning situations. Open and manage the airway at a neutral position, make a complete seal around their mouth and their nose, give two rescue breaths, each breath lasting about 1 second making sure you see the chest rise.

b. Give 30 chest compressions about 1.5 inches deep at the rate of 100-120 compressions per minute.

c. Continue CPR cycles until advanced support arrives, the scene becomes unsafe, the infant shows signs of life and purposeful movement, an AED is available, you are too tired, or another person can take over.

Just remember, we begin CPR Cycles in drowning emergencies by giving two initial breaths first, then continue with chest compressions second. In other words, we flip the order of normal CPR steps only for drowning emergencies.  Stay safe and on high alert when it comes to babies!