Caring for children is a privilege for those who are called to do it. It is also an enormous responsibility and one that caregivers should be as prepared as possible to undertake. Being able to care for a child in their own home provides a comfortable, familiar environment for the child where they feel safe and secure. However, according to the CDC accidental injury is the leading cause of death in children under 14 in the United States and more of these accidents happen at home than anywhere else. Being certified in CPR and First Aid arms caregivers with the skills they need to act in a timely manner if an accident happens.

The leading reasons children under the age of 4 are seen in the emergency room include falls, being struck by something, allergic reactions, poisoning, burns, and being cut or pierces by something.  Although most of these can be seen as preventable, anyone with children knows they are quick, curious, and often times fearless. Accidents can happen even when parents are in the same room with a child. CPR and First Aid training equips nannies and babysitters to immediately respond to these situations and many more and get the child the time sensitive medical help they may need until parents can be notified and get to their child. For parents, knowing their caregiver has these skills gives them piece of mind when they are leaving their children.

Preventing accidents is always the first priority, but in the event they do……and they will……happen, feeling confident in your ability and knowledge to handle the situation is invaluable in keeping the child calm, comforting them and getting them they help they need until mom and dad can be there.

Sign up for a Pediatric CPR & First Aid class today!

The Healthy Living Expo is coming up!  Get ready for Knoxville’s largest Health & Fitness Expo.  AND…Guess What??  CPR Choice will be participating this year!  We will be doing live CPR demonstrations as well as teaching classes and handing out information at our booth.  Come visit us and learn “hands-only” CPR and get some information and goodies!  We will also be teaching a Friends & Family class each day of the expo. The class will be $10 and all proceeds will be donated to The American Heart Association.

Friday, Jan 23, 2015 9am-3pm (Family & Friends CPR @ 2PM, click to sign up)
Saturday, Jan 24, 2015 9am-4pm (Family & Friends CPR @ 2PM, click to sign up)

Knoxville Convention Center, Booth #121

Admission to the expo is $10 at the door or FREE if you get your tickets ahead of time.
Seniors FREE on Friday, Children 12 and under FREE

FUN! FIT! FABULOUS and FREE!

The area’s largest event focused on health, fitness, nutrition and living green returns for it’s eleventh year to the Knoxville Convention Center January 23-24, 2015. Over 130 individual companies fill more than 250 exhibits. The Expo continues to grow each year from its launch in 2005 and expects approximately 10,000 visitors!  The Healthy Living Expo offers interactive, educational exhibits, demonstrations and presentations.  Best of all, it is FREE when you get tickets before the doors open.

Some of the features for the 2014 Expo:

• Natural Awakenings Natural Health Pavilion
• Life Saving Skills taught by CPR Choice
• Chiropractic Care Pavilion
• Various Important Health Checks
• Healthy Food Sampling Booths
• Hundreds of prizes given away both days!

FREE WELLNESS PROGRAM FOR EMPLOYERS
Cigna Healthcare takes the lead promoting employee wellness by sponsoring tickets to the expo for any company that registers on The Healthy Living Expo website. Whether you have a handful of employees or one of the largest employers in our region, registration only takes a few minutes at the website, TheHealthyLivingExpo.com then you can offer:

MANY WAYS TO GET FIT and GET HEALTHY!
From natural health products to fitness companies, you will find a plethora of new ways to get fit and get healthy at The Healthy Living Expo, including life saving techniques from CPR Choice!

CPR CHOICE
What could be more important than knowing how to save someone in a life threatening situation? The Expo is proud to have CPR Choice demonstrate on stage some of the techniques you can learn when you take a CPR class. You can even take a class while you are at the expo, so by the time you leave you can be prepared to properly assist someone with life saving skills!

Natural Health Pavilion
This section of The Healthy Living Expo has companies with products and services that have a natural health aspect. Natural Awakenings Magazine, the foremost leader in our community promoting natural health is the sponsor of this area. Everything from household products, nutritional supplements to local green suppliers are found in the pavilion promoting a healthy mind, body and planet.

Chiropractic Care Pavilion
In keeping with the natural health approach to wellness is the Chiropractic Care pavilion. Three top chiropractic health professionals host this section with information about whole body wellness using natural health solutions.

FUN Outdoors
Getting outdoors, taking walks and hikes, visiting local parks are all part of living healthy so the City of Knoxville sponsors this area to inform our community of these available resources. Look for many associations and businesses offering information and products for outdoor fun for the entire family available right here in East Tennessee.

Get FIT with Health Checks
More than a dozen free health checks are available at the Expo. Screenings for allergies, blood pressure and a list of other simple tests will be listed at TheHealthyLivingExpo.com under the health check tab.

FABULOUS FOODS
Local Chef Walter and other experts using healthy products create FABULOUS foods at the Eat Right stage then share samples with visitors.  And after each segment, prizes are drawn for those attending. In addition to the stage presentations, numerous exhibitors offer samples of healthy products.

Get Active to stay FIT!
Fort Sanders Health & Fitness Center takes the lead on this stage with plenty of ideas for getting active. Music fills the area for two days highlighting numerous ways to become more active. Demonstrations are exciting to watch, inviting to participate and created for visitors of all ages.

It is informative and fun!  Come check it out!  This is a prime opportunity to find ideas, products, and services from the many exhibitors! CPR Choice is offering these Family & Friends CPR classes as a public service. All proceeds from this class will be donated directly to the American Heart Association.

We all hope we will never be put in the position of having to save a child’s life, but it could happen. Children of all ages test their physical limits and get caught in all kinds of dangerous situations. They choke on food or candy, fall off bikes and playground equipment, and take a leap into water unsupervised.

Here are a few steps to explain the basics of first aid for choking, but do yourself a favor and don’t rely on this as your sole source of information. Set aside a few hours to attend a class with CPR Choice to learn the proper techniques. Techniques differ depending on the age of the child, and doing them improperly can be harmful- learn the right technique today!

Children under a year old:

• Turn infant facedown over your forearm or on your lap if you can’t manage the forearm position, hold their jaw with one hand to support the head, which should be lower than the chest.
• Using the heel of your free hand, deliver five quick slaps between the shoulder blades.
• If still can’t breathe, try chest thrusts: While holding your baby, turn face-up, keeping the head lower than the chest. Place two fingers in the middle of the chest and give five thrusts.
• Repeat with back blows and chest thrusts until the object is visible and you can remove it.

Children over 1 year old:

• Stand behind the child with your arms around their waist.
• Make a fist with one hand, placing the thumb side against the child’s stomach above the navel, but below the rib cage.
• Grasp the fist with your other hand and quickly thrust inward and upward.
• If your child becomes unresponsive, instruct someone to call 9-1-1 and begin CPR immediately.

Toddlers & Older Children:

• If your child is still making sounds, tell them to cough, which may dislodge the object. (Don’t try to remove a foreign object unless you see it, or you could push it farther into the airway.)
• Ask “Are you choking?” If they nod yes or can’t respond, they need help.
• Give five back blows, bending them forward and provide five sharp back blows with the heel of one hand in the middle of the back between the shoulder blades. Check with the child after each blow.
• If the obstruction does not clear after the back blows, give five chest thrusts. Place one hand in the middle of the back for support and the heel of your other hand in the CPR compression position and give five chest thrusts, slower but sharper than CPR compressions.  Check with the child after each thrust.
• Call 9-1-1 and alternate between back and chest thrusts if the object is still lodged.
• Perform CPR if the child becomes unconscious.

Learn the proper techniques to save a life, it very well could be a loved one!  Check out our calendar to find a class for individuals or complete the form for on-site group training.  We guarantee it will be the best CPR class you have ever taken!  We currently serve the Knoxville, Maryville and Tri-cities area of Tennessee (TN).  Visit one of our websites for specific information for your area.

www.KnoxvilleCPR.com

www.TriCitiesCPR.com

School is in session and schedules are back on track!  I love summer, but I also love the feel of fall and the feeling of settling back into a routine.  As we head back to school, daycare, or private schools we need to be diligent that our caregivers have adequate Pediatric First Aid CPR AED Training.

CPR Choice offers Pediatric Heartsaver CPR/AED & First Aid training.  The course is designed to meet the regulatory requirements for childcare workers in all 50 United States. It teaches childcare providers and others to respond to and manage illnesses and injuries in a child or infant in the first few minutes until professional help arrives. It covers first aid skills such as finding the problem, stopping bleeding, bandaging and using an Epinephrine pen, as well as child CPR AED, infant CPR and optional modules in adult CPR AED, child mask, infant mask and Asthma Care Training for Child Care Providers.

Course Content includes:

• Pediatric CPR AED and choking
• CPR and AED for children
• How to help a choking child
• CPR for infants
• How to help a choking infant
• CPR and AED for adults (optional)
• How to help a choking
• Pediatric first aid basics
• Illnesses and injuries
• Bleeding and bandaging
• Allergic reactions
• How to use an epinephrine pen
• Asthma
• Drowning
• Bites and stings
• Burns

This class is offered by request only. We teach CPR & First Aid for daycares, private schools, gyms, churches, and childcare providers.  Please contact us via email info@cprchoice.com or phone 865-548-1500 for more info.

Avoiding Airway Obstruction in Infants

How can you make your home a safer place for your infant and take steps to avoiding airway obstruction?

• Check toys to make sure they’re age appropriate and don’t have small parts that could be swallowed by an infant.
• Check toys regularly for damage
• Avoid using infant seats, car seats, strollers, carriers, or swings for regular naps and beds.  These things could put infants in a position where their heads could fall leading to airway obstruction.
• Avoid any loose bedding, pillows, or soft objects in the crib or bassinet.
• Avoid over bundling, overdressing or covering an infant’s face or head.
• Avoid using wedges or other positioners for sleeping
• Avoid sharing your bed with your infant; they are less likely to suffocate in a crib or bassinet.
• Use a firm mattress for infant, anything to soft like a couch should not be used as a bed an infant.
• Place infants on their backs to sleep.
• Immunizing infants and breastfeeding has also been shown to reduce the risk of SIDS.
• Always supervise young children while they’re eating.
• Avoid small food that could be a choking hazard for infants such as, popcorn, marshmallows, hard candy, chewing gum, raw carrots and apples to name a few.

Should an infant’s airway become obstructed act quickly.  If the child is coughing, allow the child to cough and monitor.  If coughing becomes ineffective assess the child’s conscious level.

For infants under 1:

• If the child is conscience give up to five back blows followed by five chest thrusts.  In a seated position, support the infant at the jaw and tip them in a head-downwards position to let gravity aid in removing the object.
• Deliver 5 sharp blows with the heel of your hand to the middle of the back (in-between the shoulder blades)
• Check to see if the item has been dislodged, if not continue the blows up to 5 times.
• After 5 unsuccessful blows begin chest thrusts. Support the infant in a head-down, face up position. Deliver five thrusts; these are similar to CPR chests thrusts but slower and sharper.
• If child becomes unconscious lay the child down and look for the object in their mouth, if you can see it and remove it try to do so with the sweep of your finger.
• If again unsuccessful begin CPR

For more information on airway obstruction visit our website or take a CPR class.  We offer infant and child CPR classes in Knoxville & Maryville!  Sign up for the American Heart Association (AHA) Heartsaver CPR class today!