Have you ever wondered how your child would react in a situation where someone is injured from a fall from a boulder or a bike accident when you are not home? Or watched a news segment about a child who saved someone’s life and wondered how they knew what to do? First aid knowledge is very important and you never know when it will be needed. Kids generally like learning and being given responsibility so why not teach them age appropriate levels of first aid?
Pull out your family’s first aid kit and start to teach them about how to use the items within. (While you are there, replace any expired items!) Take the time to instruct your children and they will be better prepared for an accident or emergency. For fun and added ownership in the learning, help them create their own kid safe First Aid kit they can use if needed.
As a reasonable starting point, you can teach them
1. When and How to Call an Ambulance
2. How to Stop a Bleed
3. How to Treat a Burn
4. How to Treat a Nosebleed
5. How to do CPR
6. How to respond to a specific illness or allergy a family member has
Online resources you might find helpful to you:
These first two provide nice overviews of how you can go about teaching your children, why it’s a good idea, and what would be useful to teach them.
This article touches on how old your children should be to learn first aid.
There are also books available such as:
Nurse Bear Does First Aid by Marta Almansa Esteva
Kids to the Rescue! by Maribeth Boelts
Let’s Learn First Aid: 16 Quick and Fun Exercises by Kingsley Ogedengbe
As you teach your child, remember to instruct combined with role playing, play games to test what they have learned, and be sure to allow your child to help when there is an actual need for first aid.
First aid is an important life skill. It helps children understand how to better care for themselves, a family member, and/or their friend(s) when there is an incident. Doing these things as a family will help you bond, develop trust, and promote confidence in yourselves as a family unit!
This article was crafted for you by your MacaroniKID publisher working with Dr. J who has a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Arizona. The inspiration is to help YOU become the best parent you can be!
