Well the guy had 30 years' experience of being a paramedic as well as being an ex military medic. He really knew his stuff and warned us to check, with any further courses we did, that the instructor was fully qualified. This guy had qualifications coming out of his ears.
Let's see - what were the most useful things?
Recognising Meningitis in a small baby: high pitched, piercing scream, sleepy and difficult to wake up, refusing to feed and any food that does go down comes straight back up - the food won't smell digested or sicky at all. Get baby straight to A&E
Burns on a baby - any burn (inc steam and scald) that is bigger than a thumbprint needs to go to A&E because of their smaller mass to surface area ratio.
Bruises on baby - any bruise bigger than a thumbprint do not allow baby (or small child) to be submerged in warm water if possible - no swimming or bath. Something to do with nitrogen intake and bubbles in the bloodstream - I was a bit tired and confused by this point, but can ask DH to clarify if anyone wants the technical info.
cuts and bleeds - rinse out with cold clean water, do not use antiseptic cream as it's too strong for infant epidermis and more likely than not will cause scarring.
Traumatic situations - keep voice low, calm and quiet. The majority of infant deaths occur due to neuralgic shock when parents panic during a trauma because babies' hearing is so acute and the sound of shouting, crying, panicking etc can cause their systems to shut down.
Oh yes - and does anyone know the reason we wash new clothes, esp baby clothes? I thought it was because they had some kind of coating on them, but it's actually because the majority of them come from China and the Middle East where they need to keep rats out of the bales of clothing so they chuck rat poison everywhere which can perfuse into the clothing and be released on contact with a warm body.
Right. That's the best I can do from memory via writing :) Shout out if you want me to find out the organisation who organised our course.