How to Perform Resuscitation in Children

Steve Furnell: What we need to do is give the baby some air, because they are not breathing. So we need to breathe for them and we do this by first of all getting them two breaths. We say to people, it's a bit like an huff in front of the mirror, what we need to do is seal with our mouth around baby's mouth and nose, because their noses are quite soft. We can't pinch their nose to close it. So we try and get a good seal around their mouth and nose. Jenny Hutchinson: That's different to the adult way -- Steve Furnell: That's right. Jenny Hutchinson: You go over the nose with the baby. Steve Furnell: Yeah babies, we cover their mouth and nose, because their noses aren't fully formed yet. They're quite small and quite soft, where with adult, I can't form to make a pinch though. With babies, it's quite easy for us to get a good seal with our mouth around their mouth and nose. And we do this twice. So let me just show you. After that, what we ask you to do is to look for signs of circulation. What symptoms you see in babies is they start to move their extremities, hands and feet, sometimes, they start to cough and try to make a slower movement. One of the other things we'll ask you to do is look and see what babies color's like, because babies are usually quite pink and rosy, aren't they? Jenny Hutchinson: Yeah, yeah. Steve Furnell: And sometimes, when babies stop breathing, they will go quite pale and blue. Jenny Hutchinson: We've seen. Steve Furnell: Yeah, blueness around the lips is one of the key things we'll ask for. If they haven't got any of those signs of circulation, it's probably because their heart has either stopped beating or it's not beating fast enough. What we need to do is we need to compress the chest to squeeze the heart, because that then gets blood around the body, and allows oxygen to get to the brain and the heart till further help can get there. We do this by just placing two fingers on the center of the chest, roughly mid-nipple line, fingers should be on the breastbone. We press down five times, again, to about a third of their chest depth, but we push down a rate of about hundred a minute this time. And it's quite fast and the rate of work is have a safe hand in between. So just to show you, the one, two, and three, and four, and five. So we would ask you to just keep that going, so it would be, one breath, five compressions. Excellent! Jenny Hutchinson: Great! So you would keep doing this until either the baby comes around or get help. Steve Furnell: That's right. We just keep doing that one breath, to five compressions, one, five -- Jenny Hutchinson: What happens when, if the baby does come around? Steve Furnell: Right, if baby does come around, then we just stop and pause and just see if they are making any coughing or swallowing. To do this, you just put your head down, and listen to see if they are breathing. If they are, great, excellent! What you need to do is not pick baby up, because their head will drop forward and airway could get blocked. Turn baby onto their front, and I can't show you very well on these manikins because the heads don't turn, but what you need to do is just very gently, turn their head to the side, and keep their head tilted back. Just put your head down again, and make sure they are all breathing and keep monitoring their breathing until further help arrives.