Paediatric First Aid

Become an accredited HSE Certified Paediatric First Aid Expert, for parents, grandparents, babysitters and childcare staff, this course covers emergencies unique to infants and young children.

Imagine a father preparing dinner while his 8-month-old daughter sits nearby in a highchair, mouthing a small toy left within reach. Without warning, she goes silent — no crying, no coughing, just wide eyes and no sound. In choking, silence is the emergency, not noise.

Because he’d taken a paediatric first aid course, he recognised it immediately as a full airway obstruction, not something to wait out. He laid her face-down along his forearm, head lower than her body, and gave five firm blows between her shoulder blades. Nothing. He turned her face-up, placed two fingers just below her sternum, and gave five sharp chest thrusts. On the third attempt, the toy piece dislodged and she started crying — the best sound he could have heard.

Had he hesitated, guessed, or reached for an adult technique like an abdominal thrust, the outcome could have gone very differently. The whole sequence, from recognising the choke to clearing it, took under 90 seconds — but only because the steps were already automatic.

You can save the lives of innocent infants and kids with quick first aid and CPR.

Choking and foreign body emergencies are a well-documented paediatric issue in Singapore. A review of local emergency department data found 353 children under 16 presented with a suspected foreign body in the ear, nose or throat, with the largest share — 39.4% — in children under 4, the age group least able to explain what happened.

A separate local study of 405 infants aged 12 months and under found home injuries made up 91% of presentations, with falls as the leading mechanism (77%) — a reminder that paediatric first aid is really about a young child’s world (cots, highchairs, floors, small objects), not a small adult’s. The gap between a close call and a fatality is very often exactly what this course covers: recognising the signs immediately, and knowing back blows, chest thrusts and infant CPR well enough to act on them without hesitation.

Paediatric First Aid: Emergencies, CPR & Choking Response

Babies and young children aren’t just small adults — their airways, breathing and physiology respond differently in an emergency. That’s exactly why paediatric first aid is taught as its own course rather than folded into general first aid.

Common Types of Paediatric Emergencies

• Choking — the leading cause of unintentional injury death in infants under 1; for this age group, small household objects (not food) cause more choking deaths than anything else
• Falls — from cots, changing tables, highchairs, and stairs
• Burns and scalds — hot drinks, bathwater, kitchen accidents
• Febrile seizures — a sudden high fever triggering a seizure, most common between 6 months and 5 years
• Allergic reactions / anaphylaxis — food, insect stings, sudden swelling or breathing difficulty
• Poisoning — household chemicals and medication left within reach
• Drowning — in bathtubs and paddling pools, often silent and fast

Child-Specific CPR

Infant CPR (under 1 year) differs from adult and child CPR in several specific ways:

• Hand placement: two fingers, centred on the chest just below the nipple line (not the heel of the hand used on adults)
• Compression depth: about 4cm, roughly one-third of the chest’s depth
• Compression rate: 100–120 compressions per minute
• Compression-to-breath ratio: 30:2 for a single rescuer, 15:2 when two trained rescuers are present
• Check first: confirm the infant is unresponsive and not breathing normally before starting compressions
• Calling for help: most training standards advise that a lone rescuer give about two minutes of CPR before leaving the infant to call for emergency help (995 in Singapore); if someone else is present, send them to call immediately while compressions start

Choking Relief Techniques

• Recognise it fast: a choking infant can’t cry, cough, or make noise
• 5 back blows: lay the infant face-down along your forearm or thigh, head lower than the body, and strike firmly between the shoulder blades
• 5 chest thrusts: turn the infant face-up, place two fingers in the middle of the chest just below the nipple line, and push sharply downward
• Check the mouth between rounds — only remove an object you can actually see; never do a blind finger sweep
• Repeat 5 back blows and 5 chest thrusts until the object clears or help arrives
• Never use abdominal thrusts (the Heimlich manoeuvre) on an infant — their internal organs are fragile enough that it risks real injury; abdominal thrusts are for children over 1 and adults
• Call 995 if the obstruction doesn’t clear, and bring the baby with you to the phone