We produced this short video in association with St John Ambulance to clarify the information provided in our articles about choking in children. The video is free to watch – simply click the play button above.
Take a look at our articles First Aid: Choking and What to do: Choking Facts and Prevention
for more information on this topic.
Video Transcript
My name is Moya Travis. I am a first aid trainer for St John Ambulance and today I am working with SafeKids and I am going to demonstrate to you how to treat a choking infant. An infant is from birth to one.
On discovering the child who is having difficulty, coughing or breathing, I would approach and make sure the area is safe. Then the first thing I would do is pick the child up, place my hand on the breast, turn the child over and support it across my forearm.
I would ensure that the head is lower than the chest, and what I am going to do is give five back blows using just the finger tips. Then I would turn the child over and look in the mouth and if there was anything there I would pick it out.
If there was nothing there, then what I would do is turn the child on its back and I would perform chest thrusts. That is two fingers, one finger’s width below the nipple line, and as I push in I’m going to push up at the same time and I would do five of those. Then I would check if the object had come out of the child’s mouth, and if that didn’t work then I would start to repeat the five back slaps.
Again if that didn’t work, check the mouth, if there is nothing there, again do the five chest thrusts. And if that didn’t work I would take the child with me, ensuring that the airway is open and go to the phone and dial 999.