Do you know these child safety tips?
Sarah’s six-month-old baby swallowed a 50 fils coin that fell out of a piggy bank he was playing with while being fed by his nanny. The coin got stuck in his food pipe and he began to choke. Sarah Ilyas, who is the head of nursing at Aster Hospital, was not at home but luckily her husband was present and had been taught by Sarah how to relieve a baby in such a situation. He followed the procedure of back slap and chest thrust taught to him by his wife and that saved the life of their baby.
“That day when I got back home, my husband cried and hugged me and thanked me for teaching him this technique and I would want to tell all parents that in such situations the mothers may panic and stress out and therefore it is the fathers who need to take charge,” said Sarah at an eye-opening session at the Aster Hospital, Mankhool, recently.
Aster Hospital organised the ‘Aster S.H.I.E.L.D (Safe Handy Information that Eliminates Likely Dangers) session aimed at creating awareness about a few lifesaving measures and first aid tips for parents/caregivers to keep their children safe. Over 100 people (33 families) took part in the training sessions, demonstrative safety measures and the quiz competition.
Since baby safety gets challenging as the baby grows older, the series of sessions was aimed at creating awareness among parents about the various aspects of baby safety.
The sessions included on ways to identify a sick baby, lifesaving measures for babies, contents of a first aid kit at home, and how to relieve a baby if he chokes on something.
Manasie, mother of a six-monthold, said: “I am a regular participant of Aster Nurture sessions and they have actually helped me in bringing up my baby. For me, the session on how to relieve your baby if he chokes on something and also the CPR session was an eye opener. Certain things we learnt about the first-aid kits at home, such as we can use alcohol swabs if the baby got a cut or wound, were completely new to me. I would never had used alcohol swabs as I thought my kid’s skin would be too sensitive to use these swabs for a baby.”
The event also saw the attendance of dignitaries from the Dubai Police who educated the parents with insightful inputs on road safety measures when travelling with children in vehicles. The programme also included a session on car safety training by Babyshop, also a sponsor of the event.
“The Dubai Police Traffic Department runs various road safety awareness campaigns including those for bikers, drivers, pedestrians and more. Road safety is the responsibility of not only the driver but also the passengers seated in the car. Crossing the roads properly, wearing the seatbelt at all times and following the traffic rules are important aspects of road safety that should be strictly followed,” said Omar Muslim Osman from the General Department of Traffic.
Another aspiring mother, Neha Pandey, said: “We don’t have our in-laws or any elders in the family here and therefore we know nothing about parenting. So such sessions are our only source of information and have been extremely helpful for me.
“I was taught about what to be worried and not-to be worried about if my child falls sick and how to handle stress or not to panic in certain situations. Also both me and my husband are working, so we hardly get time to read up or learn about parenting. So we make it a point not to miss these nurturing sessions organised by Aster.”
“Knowledge of parents regarding their baby’s health is usually limited to checking the fever, cold or cough. But at Aster’s SHIELD session we not only handed them pamphlets and gave them talks on child safety but also 11 members from our nursing team gave live demonstrations using props and even called parents to do take part in the Baby Safety Training programme,” Dr Ashima Kakkar, assistant manager at Aster Nurture, told Khaleej Times. saman@khaleejtimes.com