- If the child loses consciousness and our actions are not successful:
- If 5 breath attempts are unsuccessful:
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How to provide first aid when choking? Here is a step by step diagram.
In the case of choking, the type of cough should be assessed first:
- if it is an effective cough - loud, clear, the child can draw air into the lungs, cries and reacts to your signals - encourage them to "cough" the foreign body from the respiratory tract on their own
- if it is an ineffective cough - silent, noiseless, the child cannot breathe, turns blue - start the first aid procedure.
Call for help first - you should call the ambulance as soon as possible - tel. 999 or 112 (from mobile phones). Then:
1. Lean the baby forward and hit the shoulder blades with the open hand 5 times. If the baby is heavier, you can place him across the knee.
2. If that didn't help, kneel behind the baby, bend him forward, put your arms under his arms, embracing his torso. Wrap one hand into a fist, put your other hand around it and press the upper abdomen firmly 5 times from the top towards you in the middle of the distance between the navel and the end of the breastbone. Perform 5 blows between the shoulder blades and alternate 5 thrusts against the abdomen. After every 5 steps, check that the foreign body has not fallen out.
If the child loses consciousness and our actions are not successful:
3. Put your baby on a flat surface. With your hand on his forehead, push his head back and lift his chin up. This will open the airways and check that the foreign body cannot be seen and that it cannot be removed with a finger
4. Since the baby is not breathing, take air, put your mouth around the baby's mouth and blow your exhalation air. Remember about blocking the baby's nose - it prevents air from escaping. Your breathing should lift the baby's chest and last about 1 - 1.5 seconds. Do a cycle of 5 breaths.
If the cage does not rise after the breath, try again before the next one to position the baby's head correctly (see picture 3).
If 5 breath attempts are unsuccessful:
5. Give 30 chest compressions with the heel of the hand just above the rib-sternum connection, at a rate of 100 per minute. After 30 compressions, check that the foreign body is not in the mouth and cannot be removed (see picture 3). If not - perform 2 rescue breaths (see picture 4) and another 30 compressions (see picture 5).
6. If the child is bigger or the providing personsmaller, you can use both hands for chest compressions. Continue the activities until the result. If the foreign body is successfully removed from the airway, if any of your breaths lifted its chest and the baby began to move, cough and breathe normally - even while still unconscious, put it on its side and wait for an ambulance to arrive.
Even if you have successfully performed first aid, the child must be examined by a doctor who will determine whether the choking has caused internal injuries and whether foreign body fragments are left in the respiratory tract.
"First aid in case of choking" educational campaign