Why It's Important to Teach Your Children About First Aid

Childhood would not be childhood without the odd graze, bump or bruise and, thankfully, most of the injuries kids endure require little more than a plaster and a cuddle from mom or dad. However, as your children grow, it’s important that they know how to take care of injuries by themselves in order to gain independence. And it’s not just minor scrapes that you need to prepare them for. Would your little ones know how to cope if a friend started choking in the school cafeteria, a sibling burned themselves with a hot drink or you collapsed at home? You may worry that children will find discussing such issues frightening, but this doesn’t have to be the case. It is possible to teach girls and boys crucial life-saving skills in an age-appropriate and positive way. Doing so will enable them to spot dangers, stay calm in emergency situations and make a vital difference to someone who has had an accident or become seriously ill.
Starting the conversation
A first aid kit serves as an excellent prompt for teaching your children about how to cope with threatening situations. By talking through each item in the kit, you can start conversations on a range of different topics, including what situations might cause bleeding, burns or choking, how to tell if someone is breathing, when and how to call the emergency services, how to perform CPR and how to keep themselves safe and calm in a crisis. Encourage your children to ask questions and express any worries or concerns they might have. If you cannot answer their questions, there is a wealth of advice and information available online on the topic. You may want to consult the NHS website or first aid kit providers such as St Johns Supplies. You could also get some books on the subject or enrol on a first aid course to ensure that you and your children are as well informed as possible.
What to include in your first aid kit
A kid-friendly household kit should contain a range of plasters, gauze dressings and bandages, sterile eye dressings and burn gels. You might also choose to keep a pair of scissors, tweezers, an eye bath, a thermometer, safety pins, rash cream, insect repellent, painkillers and antihistamine tablets in this container. However, if your child is not mature enough to handle potentially dangerous items, it may be worth keeping some of these things out of reach in a medicine cabinet. In any case, your children should be given strict instructions on what is safe for them to use and how to use each item properly. You should also make sure that all members of the family know where the first aid kit is kept.
The benefits of teaching first aid
With fewer than one in 10 people trained in first aid, every year too many people are losing their lives in situations where first aid could have helped them. Not equipping your sons and daughters with the skills and knowledge they need to assess risks, take appropriate action and make a positive difference means that they could find themselves unable to help themselves or someone else in the future.
Familiarising younger members of the household with the contents of the family first aid kit and the basic premises of first aid will enable them to treat a variety of problems by themselves, including bleeds, burns, and foreign objects lodged in ears, eyes and noses. If your children are too young to utilise the kit by themselves, simply being able to tell someone where it is in the event of an emergency may make all the difference.
Beyond the practical benefits, educating children about first aid can improve their confidence, self-esteem and sense of independence. It can also make kids more compassionate, caring and empathetic individuals.
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