First aid courses - anyone been on?

[sheeplikessleep]

After a very scary incident yesterday, where DS2 got a grape stuck in his throat, I am thinking I need to swot up on first aid really, so I feel a bit more like I know what I am doing.

Has anyone been on any? Found it useful? Cheers

I had to do one through my work, was very useful in that I know what to do, with regard to CPR and choking, ie it has given me a bit more confidence, however, I have yet to really use it, if you know what I mean.

To be honest I'm really glad that I haven't had to use it for real yet!

Yeah, I hope not to use it either, but other than whacking DS2 on the back yesterday (without success, it wasn't until DH tried and the grape flew out then), it's really unnerved me that I don't really know what I'm doing.

There's one with British Red Cross at £37.50, so I might enrol on that one.

Thanks for posting.

Do it
First Aid is a great thing to know.
You hope you'll never need it, but you never know what is around the corner.
Good luck!

the red cross offers courses, ask for one specifically for children.
I just did one a few weeks back and it was really reassuring.

I did a Red Cross one for work recently, though that was a full 3 days and cost quite a bit more. But I'm sure anything they do will be good! It's certainly a good skill to have, just so you have some idea how to deal with things if they happen.

As far as I am concerned everyone should know first aid and it should be offered to every new parent!

(possibly slight bias having been in St John since I was 13 but it is a vital skill)

I do Basic Life Suppoer (BLS) every year for work.
But I have done First Aid, First Aid at Work (which qualifies you to be the resident work First Aider) .This was years ago so well out of date now.

Did a Baby & Child course when I was pg with DC1. It helps to have that confidence to not panic.

Had to use it when DS was choking on something- he could breath in but not out. I was going to run to my neighbour (who's a CM) but told myself I could cope.
And I did!

Excellent, thanks all for posting.
I'm going to sign up for the baby and infant Red Cross course.
Feel happy that I'm doing something to help!

Tesco do baby safe events periodically with Red Cross. I went to one last year and it was great. I heard about it in their quarterly parenting mag they sent out but think it was on Tesco website as well.

I have been doing first aid courses every few years for the last 20 years as part of my job as a nursery nurse.
I have never had to do anything major but I am confident I could do it if I had to. The courses I have done are the ones where you have to demonstrate that you can do CPR on adults and children in order to pass.
I think everyone should have a basic knowledge of first aid.