Note: Your progress in watching these videos WILL NOT be tracked. These training videos are the same videos you will experience when you take the full ProCPR program. You may begin the training for free at any time to start officially tracking your progress toward your certificate of completion.
This unconscious child choking lesson is for situations where you find a child who is unconscious, and you suspect they became unresponsive due to an airway obstruction.
Ideally, either you or a bystander witnessed the victim choking before they went unconscious. Through further assessment, you find that the child has a pulse but isn't breathing normally. Any attempts to deliver a rescue breath have failed, most likely due to an obstruction.
In this scenario, you would treat this patient as an unconscious child choking victim. The method of care will closely resemble performing CPR on a child, however there are subtle differences to pay attention to.
Pro Tip #1: There is also one important distinction when performing rescue breaths on a child who has a pulse but isn't breathing normally versus an adult – one rescue breath every three seconds for two minutes, which has been highlighted in the steps below to help you remember.
As always, the first thing you want to do is make sure the scene is safe and that your gloves are on. Make sure you have your rescue mask with a one-way valve handy.
Remember that to maintain a steady rhythm, count out loud while performing chest compressions – one, as you press down, and, as you allow the chest to recoil. When you reach 13, drop the and to maintain a two-syllable cadence on the compressions and not disrupt the rhythm.
Remember to allow for full recoil of the chest cavity after performing each chest compression. You want to allow the chest to come all the way back to the neutral position before performing another compression.
There are four distinct differences to be aware of.
While the same head tilt maneuver is applied to children as it is for adults, make sure there is less hypertension in a child's neck compared to adults. To do that, simply tilt the head back only slightly past neutral. Your goal is a chin angle that's less pronounced and more perpendicular to the ground.
The compressions you perform on a child are very similar to those you would perform on an adult. The only difference is in the compression depth. While adult CPR has a depth of 2-2.4 inches, when administering CPR on a child, two inches will usually be the maximum depth. And in very small children, it's better to perform compressions using just one hand.
If there is only a single responder, continue using the 30 compressions to two ventilations ratio. However, if there are two responders, that ratio changes to 15 compressions to two ventilations.
AEDs work the same regardless of age. However, the pads themselves, as well as pad placement, will vary based on the size of the child.
If the child weighs more than 55 pounds, continue using the adult AED pads. If the child weighs less than 55 pounds, use pediatric AED pads if available.
Warning: It's vitally important that the AED pads do not touch each other. If the child is too small for adult pads, and you do not have pediatric pads, place one on the center of the sternum and the other on the child's back between the scapulae.