What first aid should I know to keep my child safe this summer? Parenting SOS with Kate Ball

0:01Coming up on Happy Mum, Happy Baby, Parenting SOS. What's really important for children when they're little is that they know how to raise the alarm If you're at home with young children, that might be that you've had a conversation with your children about how we get help It might be how they open your phone, dare I say it, and dial 999 Or how if you still have a LUN line that they can make an emergency call This is all about making sure that your children are in a really bright colour and avoiding those bluey-greeny colours They look gorgeous, but when you go under the water it makes them much harder to spot so if you're looking, God forbid, for a missing child around water then it's tricky.

0:40Somebody messaged us and said I had to give my baby CPR in the back of a car and because you told me what to do I saved my baby's life. I know. And then you just go, I can't stop, I can't possibly stop. No. Because you just go, that is just the power of what we're doing.

1:04Hello and welcome to Happy Mum, Happy Baby, Parenting SOS. Now, if your household is anything like mine, you'll know that summer brings with it a whole lot of fun, but also a few extra worries for us parents. Whether it's days at the park, paddling pool adventures or family picnics in the sunshine, keeping our little ones safe is always top of our minds. So I am very excited to be joined today by the brilliant Kate Ball, founder of Mini First Aid. Kate is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to keeping families safe, and she's here to share her top tips to get you ready for the summer. Hello, Kate.

1:39Hello. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. I mean, we go way back. We do. We do. It was a very long time ago that I sat in your living room teaching you first aid. Absolutely. And at the time I was newly pregnant with Max as well, so my third. Yeah. I just absolutely loved to actually have someone come over and talk to us about first aid and what we can do. it made me feel a bit more prepared. And you could wear your slippers whilst learning. I loved this. It was brilliant. That's what Mini First Aid is all about, is making it accessible for you to learn, yeah. Yeah, and maybe not therefore worrying about all this stuff, but knowing that you have the skills and the tools to act if something happens.

2:19Yeah, yeah, worry is huge. Worry is huge. And the thought of something happening to the most precious thing in your world, them being unwell or them having an accident, and you not knowing what to do, It can be really scary stuff, and that's why we want to put people at ease. I mean, obviously, I took a lot of first aid stuff away from us getting together. But the one thing I really did take away, and I told a lot of people about, Kate, tell me your family set up. Okay, so I have six children. Yes, but tell me how this happened. Oh, okay, okay. So, okay. So I had two children, I had a boy and a girl.

2:51It was lovely. Everyone said, oh, great, got one of each. Not that that really mattered, but we had one of each. But there was a space in the back seat of the car, so there was a middle space. and I just said I think we should fill it with another car seat which actually turns out you can't. You then need to buy another car anyway. But we decided to try for another baby and were very blessed, she says, with a set of twins. So we went from two to four which was glorious and wonderful and when those babies were about a year old we celebrated getting a little bit more sleep and maybe had a few gin and tonics and I found out I was pregnant again.

3:28with another set of twins. Yeah. And all the way through, we saw the same stenographer. So the person that gives you the scan was just like, you can't write this stuff. Who even are you? And when the second set of twins were born, there was only 20 months between them. So when I had them, I was in the neonatal unit with my new tiny babies. And the lady in the bed next to me went, there's some other babies that have just crawled in and I was like yeah they're mine as well they've come to visit me I mean that is a lot Kate I know to go for a third and end up with six I know it's quite a jump we are the pillow talk of our local community when people are going shall we go for a third or shall we have any more people go oh not like that Kate Ball for you I remember you saying at one point it was almost like having quads yeah oh yeah when I had a quad buggy.

4:22We had to import it from Australia where they sold them to childminders and it had two layers. So, and the funny thing with this buggy is that you, I didn't read the instructions, but apparently you need to be over five foot seven to be able to see over it. And I'm only five foot two. So people in our local community would see this sort of big thing coming towards them with all these legs fluffing in it. And then me just looking around the side. sorry here we come and it was so heavy so yeah it's been a bonkers ride but the two sets of twins now are now seven and eight so they are in a different stage of life no more prams no more prams throwing us different challenges but certainly you know having all those babies at the same time was we potty trained when the babies were newborn so you know just who does that but at the same time you had mini first aid yeah yeah so I started the business when Alfie was teeny tiny because I just, I cannot describe, I was thinking about it on the way here today, that when you get given your baby for the first time, it's the most precious entity that you would do anything, absolutely anything to protect, support, love, all those things.

5:32And I suddenly got my mum's feelings about being a mum. It suddenly all made sense. And I knew because of our family history that I needed to do something that would keep Alfie, our eldest, safe and obviously subsequent children. So, yeah, so I started it when he was tiny. Your brother is a massive reason as to why you set up many first days. He is, yeah, he is. My brother was at university in Portsmouth and he went out to celebrate the end of his finals. We were also, it's a magical 20 months in my family. We were 20 months apart and we were close. And in fact, we weren't good pals as kids. I would say we fought a lot.

6:10Siblings, isn't it? I think my mum still has the battle scars. But we, as teens, and then when we both went off to university, we were good mates. We weren't at the same uni. So I had finished. He was at university. He had just finished. He'd finished his geography degree. He went out celebrating, as students do and do very well. And he decided on the day of his finals, after they'd been out celebrating, to go and watch the sun come up on the beach in Portsmouth. And they sat on the Portsmouth beach. And he ran in front of one of his friends. And one of his friends was filming him. And he ran up to the camera.

6:40and he went, I'm knackered. And then he lay down and he died. And he literally lay down because his heart had been put under so much pressure with this run, exhilaration, everything else. And he went into cardiac arrest. And the young people on the scene didn't know what to do. They called the emergency services. Did they know that something was happening? They said he made a funny noise. And in fact, one of them wrote in his memorial book, I'm sorry, I couldn't save you. And we never hold any malice towards any of those young people because ultimately it wasn't their fault. It was his heart that wasn't working.

7:17But the fact that there wasn't correct CPR until the paramedics arrived means that we will never know. We will never know if the outcome could have been different. And I just, in my learning brain, going, I'm teaching people to learn stuff all the time, albeit about chocolate at the time. How on earth can you not know how to save somebody's life? and that's where MiniFest Day came from. So starting the business then? Yeah. Because it's one thing having an idea but then running with it, which you absolutely have, whilst having loads of kids. Has the need for it and the desire, because obviously things like Instagram and stuff and social media, we are exposed to a lot more stuff now.

7:59So has the fact that people kind of gone, I need this, has that kind of just forced you to kind of push through and juggle everything and just kind of go, actually this has given you a very different purpose in life. And there are moments because I spend lots of time hanging out in entrepreneurial groups and business things. And as our business has grown, we train 2 ,000 people a week in first aid. We've got over 70 training centres in the UK. It's bonkers. It's really busy, but it comes with its challenges. And the sort of challenges that we get now are the very unsexy challenges, like the website doesn't work or the booking system breaks or we haven't had our delivery of first aid kits or whatever that challenge is.

8:40And sometimes you go, do I really want this? And I've sometimes said to people, I feel like I've created a monster. And then, and then what will happen is an email or an Instagram message will land and it will say, like it did last month where somebody messaged us and said, I had to give my baby CPR in the back of a car. And because you told me what to do, I saved my baby's life. I know. I know, I know. And then you just go, I can't stop. I can't possibly stop. No. Because you just go, that is just the power of what we're doing. Yeah, absolutely. And so sometimes even when you have the most challenging of days, mine with my crazy number of kids and our bonkers business, that's my purpose.

9:23Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. It's massive. Kate, we are heading into the summer. And with that comes lots of different challenges. First of all, if our kids are school age, obviously they're home more. We're in charge of their bumps. But also I wonder if it's because there's a chance to be outside more, everything's more exposed, everyone's trying to juggle a lot more things, I think, during the summer. What should we be looking out for a little bit more when it comes to the summer? Well, it doesn't matter whether you're going away or whether you're in your garden or in your public park, wherever you are, is that sometimes because we are distracted, especially because we're on our devices and a lot of us are still trying to work whilst we're doing everything else.

10:03What we need to do is just do a little bit more, and it's another unsexy phrase, but like a risk assessment really, effectively just go, what could happen? What could I make safe before I do this? Now, that could be simple things like going, right, just make sure your kids put a helmet on before you go out on scooters or on a bike. Make that a thing. It could be that you're going to visit somebody and they have a pond and you go, okay, we need to make that safe before my kids are going to play in the garden. it could be that you just make sure that they've got their sun cream on that they're wearing hats that they're wearing sunglasses there's so many things but I think if you were just able before you start your day or the night before to just go I just need to consider what I need to have in place because the prevention then means that you don't even have to do the first aid then because the accident's not going to happen what we see in A &Es in the UK and I would imagine this would reflect similarly globally is that there are so many children going to hospital young children going to hospital with accidents that could have been prevented really yeah and we see a rise of that in the summer particularly water related incidents so drowning etc um so you think right okay well if i just took a moment just to make sure that i've made it as safe as i can and i know i know you can't wrap kids up in cottonwood you know that the kids are going to have bumps and scrapes so that's where you need to make sure you've got a first aid kit with you so that if they do fall over in the park you're not looking hopelessly for another parent to say have you got a plaster you've got it you've got a wipe you know you can clean them up so yeah being prepared because it is also that thing right there are certain things that will things will just happen yeah absolutely and you can't beat yourself up for it no it's about how you react yeah within that moment and and children particularly very young children but i mean all children really will take their reaction from you yeah so if you go ah blood you know whatever or bump scream for help you know yes you might need someone to come and help you but your children are taking their cues from you and you know it's very simplistic I'm not a child psychologist but I know that if you've got a parent that goes it's okay we've cut our knee we've got a first aid kit mommy's got a first aid kit in the bag we're gonna clean it up this is what we're gonna do and then you can go play again then that means that it just becomes just a thing just a thing you know and then you have your like your your it's almost like a certificate isn't it your war stripes you know I've got a plaster.

12:16And actually what happens in my family is everybody wants a plaster. Do they? Yeah, yeah. Even if they're not injured. I can remember when Buddy was, he would have been about 18 months, we went on holiday and we had done all of our risk assessing and we were in America and he literally just fell over his own feet as toddlers do and he went into the leg of a table. Ouch. And because we're in America, we not only had the manager in, we had security in, we had so many people just in case we were going to do anything about the fact, you know, Your table hurt my son. But it also, it's that thing, isn't it?

12:48And I always think anything with mouths or head, it always looks terrible. Well, your skin is stretched really tightly with your skull. So if you split your head or your chin, it's going to bleed a lot. And that's again when parents say, oh God, it was really scary. They bled loads. You know, we've all heard the thing where you say you spill a little bit of liquid onto your kitchen floor. You know it goes everywhere. That's the same as blood. So it doesn't mean you need to be flippant about it. You need to apply a pressure to stop it bleeding. But then actually quite often you'll find it can be quite superficial.

13:18It's interesting what you said about arriving and it happening quite quickly is that we see a huge number of accidents happening with young children when people just arrive on their holiday. And it's because you've all got that moment of excitement. You're exploring your new place where you're staying. Perhaps you're checking out the bedrooms, who's going to sleep where. And that's when the kids go explore as well. Right. And then they go explore. And that's when accidents can happen. and people like the RLSS who are very focused on life-saving and, you know, safety around water will talk about swimming pool safety in that.

13:52You know, you go to a holiday place that's got a pool and you're checking out where everyone's going to sleep and your toddler's walking towards the pool because that looks cool and that's where I want to go. So, again, just being on almost heightened alert when you first arrive somewhere, you know, so that if you can, you can prevent an accident from happening. We generally give each other different roles now. So Tom will take the kids straight to the pool. I will unpack. Yeah. And also, I love an unpack, but it's also that thing of having everything off the floor. Yeah. So everything is in cupboards.

14:22Even if the shorts are all squished in one little drawer, at least they're there. Yeah. And I don't have to, you know, we're not navigating our way around. Yeah. And we talk to families, particularly with very young children who, and we suggest that they might want to take some safety products with them. So you can pack them in your suitcase. You can pack things like door jammers to stop doors slamming, corner protectors, those sorts of things. You can pack them and take them with you. And sometimes you might see this beautiful holiday property that looks great and then you look at a piece of furniture and think, I'd never have that in my house because it's got sharp edges.

14:53Or when you get somewhere and there's stairs with no gate. Yeah. And especially in places like Cornwall where it's flipped. Yeah. So your living space is upstairs and you go downstairs. So it's just like a hole that anyone can fall down. Yeah. And, you know, I think the hospitality industry are definitely better at responding to the challenges of having parents staying, children staying in their properties and going. So you can challenge where you're staying and say, what have you got in the way of baby safety before I come? And there are, you know, brilliant websites that you can search to go, actually, is this property baby safe?

15:25You know, does it come with a stair gate? Ask those questions because you are allowed to ask. They're very precious and you don't want them to fall down the stairs. so if you want you know you can absolutely ask before you book your holiday or when you get there yeah well that's the thing is when you're when you're in the uk and you're visiting parks or you know family locally you kind of know where the hospitals are yeah you know a bit more about the area yeah you know what you would do in that you know whereas when you're abroad suddenly things flip yeah so a piece of advice that we always give to parents and carers is to go yes you might have the name of your hotel but just put the address in your phone so that you've got it on your notes page of your phone so that if you have to ring the emergency services that you can articulate where you are because just saying you know particularly if it's you know English is not the first language spoken in that area as well is that you can share that you might be able to send the information by text and do a bit of nosing around on Google Maps before you go where's the local pharmacy where's the medical centre because that's so much easier to do when you're not stressed and panicked with a child that's got the head cut open that you're doing that rationally and going okay this is cool and you just save screenshots in your phone that's what I do and Google Translate is brilliant really yeah so you go into Google Translate it's not you know perhaps pure linguists would go oh no it's not always accurate but it will tell you enough that if you speak into your phone you can say that to a pharmacist my child has got this or this has happened if it's not perfectly obvious yeah and then they can help you and support you with that Yeah, absolutely.

16:56I would imagine, is pools the big thing when it comes to holidays? Yeah, so, I mean, it's always just such a scary subject, isn't it? But you can drown in less than five centimetres of water, right? So pools have got to be covered and gated because a plastic cover over it doesn't stop you because if you put weight onto a plastic cover, then you'll know if it's ever rained on your pool cover or your paddling pool cover, you'll know that you get a pool of water. So it's still not safe. So the best pools are gated. You know, really good hotels now will have things like you have to scan your room key to get into the pool.

17:29But the key thing is supervising. So, you know, when you said about you guys divide up who's going to do what, you're unpacking Tom's with the kids, is you do that. So if we're by the pool, I'll say to Matt, you're on them now. I'm having a little read or vice versa. So that actually you're constantly watching them. And there's another really good piece of advice at the moment, which is around the colour of swimwear that you put your children in. I saw you post this. Yeah. So this is all about making sure that your children are in a really bright colour and avoiding those bluey, greeny colours.

17:58They look gorgeous. But when you go under the water, it makes them much harder to spot. So if you're looking, God forbid, for a missing child around water, then it's quite, you know, it's tricky. And then another piece of advice we have around water, I mean, the main thing is watching them and making a rule. We're not going in the pool until whoever is looking after them is with you. and the other thing is is that if you do lose your child around water that dreaded moment where you go where have they gone is that as well as shouting their name you shout what they're wearing because that means that the people around you can help you look so they're not just wildly shouting a kid's name not knowing who that you can say my child is they've got brown hair they've got brown skin and they're wearing an orange swimming costume or whatever it is and that means that those people can help you look better.

18:47Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Busy beaches. You know, that's where, you know, that's where parents suddenly go, oh gosh, you know, and kids can slip the net. You know, they do that. You know, kids don't sit still. I think where, I think kids wearing bright things, especially on holidays or if you're somewhere new, is a great thing anyway. Yeah. Because then, I mean, I count my children, I'm like, one, two, three. Yeah. You must have been, I just don't know about this. Yeah. You know, so sometimes I don't look, where's buddy? I'm just like, have I got three of them? Yeah. That's great. Yeah, absolutely. And I think the other thing is, and I have to say this to myself sometimes, is that you can't rely on your children to look out for each other.

19:26Yes, they're very good. My kids will tell me when somebody's done something wrong. But if I turn to one of my twins and say, where's the other one? They'll go, I don't know. I don't know. I was just playing. I don't know. They were here a minute ago. So what you can't do is go, it's all right, because they're together. Yeah. Because that's a much more mature thing. you know that's an older kid or an adult going yeah no I've got this person and then we just have things like where we go right when we're going somewhere where it's busy or we're going to be near water we just have to hold hands yeah until mum and dad have checked it out sorry guys but this is what we're going to do yeah you're really precious and we want to keep you safe another thing that the summer brings is a lot of gatherings yeah or even if we're on holiday new places that might mean that lots of different food is around us how should people navigate things like allergies?

20:12So I would say that the parent community, when you know that your child has an allergy or an intolerance, the parent community are really hot at looking stuff up. So and actually, if you go to a brand, it's actually really easy. And now if you look at menus in a restaurant, there'll be like the dietary. But you know, and actually, we've been on holiday recently. And that first thing when the server or the waitress comes to you and says, have we got any dietary? Stop and make sure they understand. And if that means that you have to use a translate to say this is really important because my child has an allergy intolerance is going to make you feel uncomfortable and unwell allergy and severe allergy can be life-threatening so actually it's really really really important you know if your kid's got you know a severe nut allergy then the people that are serving you food need to know about it and that might mean that you have to make choices about where you go to be absolutely confident but anybody whose child is known to have a severe allergy will be carrying an EpiPen.

21:09And when you go on holiday or an auto injector, they're sometimes called, make sure you've got two. So make sure you've packed two so that if there is, you know, if you do have to use it, if your child goes into what's called anaphylaxis, where their lips start to swell and their airway is restricted, is that you know that you can give that and that you've got a spare if it's not successful. But for most people where it's an intolerance, it's just important just to go make sure whoever's serving you their food understands. Do a bit of research before you go. You know, in any holiday company, any hotel, whether that's UK based or further affair, worth their wait, will be able to give you that information.

21:46And sometimes people get a bit frustrated because they say, oh, well, they've just said they can't guarantee. Then that might not be the location for you. Because for me, I would rather go somewhere where I can be 100 % sure than take a risk. But that's every, you know, that's every parent's decision on that. Absolutely. One thing that's changed massively, I think, since we were kids, is sun cream and skincare. Yeah. I feel like when we used to go to the beach, a factor A, you're good. Yeah, and an oil. A baby oil by the end of the holiday. Yeah. Yeah. Whereas now, like, we're all in 50. We are, like, you know, I spray them as much as possible.

22:23But even then, kids get burned. They're in and out of the water, you know, sand, if they're basically exfoliating the stuff off. Is there anything that parents should keep in mind when it comes to protecting their kids from the sun? So you need a 30 plus at least. So 50 is great. And you also need to look for five star UVA because that will give you your most coverage of the UVA rays from the sun. And key things like staying out of the sun between 12 and 2. I think we all know that, but sometimes we get, oh, well, we were just having lunch and we sort of sat in the sunshine. That's when it catches you.

22:56It's the hottest point. if you look up in the sky the sun is literally above your head and hats really really important and I this is a mum thing really even more than a first aid thing I let my children choose their hats so that they'll wear them yeah because there's nothing worse than you buying something oh this is great and then you go to put and then again I'm not wearing that I'm not wearing that and as they get older they get even more choosy about what they're going to put on their heads so a good hat and a nice wide brim so a nice wide brim which means that it's going to give them you know as much coverage as possible and a t-shirt so a t-shirt over the shoulders when we were young it was the t-shirt of shame the second day of the holiday it would happen so quickly you'd get burnt every holiday i'm half italian i don't understand how it happened but you know so the second day you'd be out in your baggy t-shirt yeah because it all happened on the first so we want to do it we want to do it for you know we want to wear a t-shirt and just but the other thing is is that everybody in the family's got to do it because i think you know if you as the parent are going we're all covered up and we're putting factor 50 on we've got a hat and then you're lying there not role modelling that where on earth do you stand a chance of your kids going okay so there's that and then there's also a lot of swimming costumes now come with what they call like UVA UVB protection nothing can give you that complete protection apart from a five star UVA sun cream so even if you put your kid in those long sleeve suits which are brilliant especially if they're going to be in the water for a long period of time the cream's got to go underneath and the recommendation is that the cream goes on 20 minutes before so do it in your holiday accommodation before you get out in the sun and definitely before you get on the sand because no one likes having cream put on when they're on the sand and then you need to reapply so every couple of hours we need to pop it on and that also means that you need masses more sun cream than you think you do so you need to buy loads yeah and pack it in your suitcase because when you get to the resort it's really expensive yeah and we've had people say oh it's a bit of a deterrent because it's so expensive we've just sort of made it last you know if you turn the bottle around there's always like a motif that looks like a pot with a lid and then it has a number in it.

24:54Yes. That basically tells you how long that cream is good from when it's first opened. Right. So if you have put your sun cream away since the last holiday, now we should be putting it on our kids every day, especially through the summer months when they're going to school because they're outside or playgroup or wherever they're going. But if you haven't, for whatever reason, you need to check when you first opened it because it won't work at all or as well if, and just check. Most of them normally say 12 months on, but just double check on your sun cream. I wonder if it's worth, every time you open a new bottle, just write a little date on it.

25:25Yeah, absolutely. Get a Sharpie, write on it and go, actually, this is when we opened it. I feel like we've just come up with a new little hack. I think we have. Yeah. You heard it here first. Yeah.

25:42Kate, we ask you your three most asked questions. your first one is how will I know if I need to take my baby to hospital yeah so it's quite a broad subject but the we teach a lot in our mini first aid classes about you know knowing when to go oh I don't want to waste the doctor's time or I don't want to go to A &E I don't want to be that person that the doctors roll their eyes and go why have you brought your child well the myth buster is is that actually if you go to A &E because you're concerned about your baby or your child because they're not well, then nobody's going to tell you off. And the key thing for what we talk about in all of our first aid is that obviously you might have very obvious reasons to go to hospital.

26:19You might have a broken arm or you might have significant bleeding or a burn or what have you, or your child might have choked or whatever it is. But there might be some where they're just not themselves. So this is where the illnesses stuff comes in. This is the likes of meningitis. This is sepsis. This is severe infection. And we always say to parents and carers, you know your baby better than anybody and you know what they're like when they're not well and if they are almost on another level and I always in our point of teaching flap my arms around a little bit because I say you just you just know and gut instinct is so important and you'll know this if you've been to A &E often when you get triaged which is the first nurse that you see when you arrive at A &E and they say to you is this normal for your child does your child normally sleep this much if your baby's lying sleeping in your arms or does your baby normally cry like this and you can go no this is completely different to them so with everything we always say in first aid and in illness in general if your baby is on a level that you've not seen before and it just doesn't feel right always go and get help and it might just be it's doctor first but quite often if you go to your GP if you can get an appointment if you go to your GP the first thing the GP's going to go is, I need you to go to A &E.

27:32So, you know, gut instinct massively plays a part in children's health. It goes back to what you said at the start, actually, about knowing first aid in the first place. So sometimes we've taken one of them to hospital. They're not themselves. They're drowsy. They're just not themselves at all. By the time you actually get seen, they're bouncing around. You're like, right, we're good. We're good. I would rather go to the hospital and that happen than not go to the hospital and then go further downhill and then have to wait. Yeah. And you ask any medical professional and that's what they want as well.

28:02Yeah. Yes. We hear stories of people that have perhaps gone to A &E for things that are, you know, things that could have been treated. Yeah. But if you are concerned, that's what that's where you've got to go. You've got it. And you've got to advocate. And, you know, children, particularly before they can talk, you know, before that your your little one's got a voice that can say this really hurts or I really don't feel very well. It's all on your gut instinct. So, yeah, go with your gut instinct. Yeah, absolutely. Second question, what should I actually have in a first aid kit? Well, when we ask people, have you got a first aid kit?

28:36Most people look blankly at us and go, no, no, I don't have one of them. Or I always ask that other lady at the park because she's always got one. Or that other mum, it's me in the school. So you always need to have blasters. We talked about that, didn't we? Plasters. It's good to have safety pins. People go, why would you need a safety pin? Because you can make a sling out of a jumper. So, you know, you've all been on those first aid courses where you get this great triangular bandage. And that's, you know, we teach that on our workplace courses. But actually, if you want to put a kid in a sling, you just need to pin their jumper up using a safety pin.

29:05So safety pins are good. Plasters, bandages, safety pins. Wipes because we need to clean wounds. And another really good one to have in a first aid kit is a really good pair of scissors. Because sometimes when you get a first aid kit, they'll have like a rubbishy sort of like little pair of nail scissors. So look at the first aid scissors. Because what you want is you want a good pair of scissors like shears that will cut through clothes. So if your child is caught on something, if they've burnt themselves or they're injured in a way that the clothes need to come away, so when we give CPR, for example, and we need to use a defibrillator, we need to expose the chest, we need to be able to cut through clothes.

29:39So a really good pair of scissors in the first aid kit. And then the other thing you can do with the first aid kit is you can add other things like medicines that your children need. You can start to add particular products that you know that your child needs. Some tape is good so that if you make a dressing, you can tape it on. But the other thing with a first aid kit is have it with you because the number of people that go, yeah, I've got one, it's in the bathroom cabinet. And you go, okay, what happens when they fall over in the park? Or even what happens if something happens downstairs in your house and you've left your first aid kit in your bathroom cupboard?

30:09So we always say first aid kit in the room that you spend most of your time in your house. If you're still pushing a buggy, put it under the pram, you know it's there. Put it in the glove compartment of the car or your change bag and you know you've always got it with you is it worth having one for the home and then a travel one absolutely you know absolutely and have a travel one for holiday yeah you know going back to thinking about being ready for the summer because you know just put it in your suitcase and you're like i've got everything you're not then trying in some resort to try and find somewhere that will sell you plasters so you know that just being prepared and having your first aid essentials is really really important i think it's always really worth having a look at what's like if you buy a pre-prepared one like with you guys it's worth having a look at what is in there and how you use it yeah oh yeah because that's the other thing is that people open them sometimes for the first time when they need them yeah so they suddenly go oh i didn't even know actually absolutely so if you see one of our kits in one of the retailers that we sell in we say take the sleeve off and have a look you know we don't mind and it's all packed and hygienic so it doesn't matter if you open it and have a have a quick look and the same at our classes we open the kits and lay them out and say this is what you need to have and everyone sort of makes it you know a load of notes as to what they need to have yeah yeah another question how can i prevent my baby from choking oh it's a big worry and i did baby led weaning so i went through all of that thing of learning about the yeah reflex reflex yeah yeah so 70 percent of the people that come to our first aid classes when we ask them why are you here today they tell us that the reason they're there is because of fear of choking and we love baby led weaning right it's great and we know all the science behind the experiences and tastes and textures but you pop your baby in a high chair for the first time and you lay out things for them to try and you suddenly feel like you've lost control so our job in our first day classes is to go okay here's here's what you need to do so first of all the tips around prevention are one is that children need to sit with you when they're eating so whether they're teeny tiny babies starting their weaning journey at six months or whether they're 15 right we want them to sit with somebody else when they're eating and And the reason that we ask you, somebody to sit, is one that makes it nice for digestion.

32:17That's good for digestion. But if they're sitting with you, it means that you can see them. So a lot of people, you know, think about giving snacks and your baby or your toddler takes it off into another room. Choking is silent. So if somebody chokes and they're not with somebody, nobody's going to know. So make it a thing. So in our house, it's quite simple. You sit at the table to have your tea. And if you get down from the table, which happens all the time, I'm a realist. my kids run away or they've got something really important that they suddenly need to do that's fine but the dinner stays there it doesn't go with you and you make it a thing from when you wean them if you can and that makes it much more straightforward so sitting is really important chopping and breaking food into manageable pieces so actually bigger is better yeah so people go oh I thought you did tiny little squares you know I remember having a chat with my mum who's like oh no in my day it was all little pieces if you think about a baby's tiny windpipe it can get blocked really easily so actually a big chunk of something because they'll kind of yeah yeah absolutely so big chunky pieces and then encouraging chewing because we don't chew very well as adults so if you watch somebody having their lunch they almost seem to put it in their mouth and it just disappears and that's because we've got great big wide gullets and things just go down and we have all this soft food that we we shove in and actually if our babies who are constantly watching us are looking at us going okay that's how we eat it just goes in and disappears so we need to do exaggerated chewing moving your mouth a lot moving it around your mouth showing your baby that your mouth is empty and you might feel a wally but they learn but that is that's really good eating so it's sitting chopping and chewing and we teach that to young children as well and if your children are nursery age or school age they have to do this as part of it's a requirement around safety for children children have to sit down to eat yeah so your children will expect it and they will expect to be shown how to you know how to break or get food into manageable pieces and then how to chew it and then the main thing is is knowing how to deal with somebody who is choking so that's where learning first aid is so important because it does happen right it does happen there is a difference between gagging and choking so you mentioned gagging and that is if you've cleaned your teeth and you brush your tongue, sometimes if you touch the back of your mouth with your toothbrush, it makes you gag.

34:34And that is the gag reflex, as it's called, is Mother Nature's way of looking after you. That's Mother Nature going, right, that toothbrush is not going down there. I'm not swallowing that. So it's good. And actually on babies, your gag reflex is a lot further forward. I'm not the scientist here, but this is my very broad understanding. Your gag reflex is further forward. So that's why when you do baby led weaning with babies, you'll see them do this thing where they're like, almost, It looks like they're choking because they're poking their tongue out, they're coughing and spluttering a bit. And it's because babies have to learn to work with that gag reflex.

35:05They need to move things around their mouth, mix it with saliva, and then swallow it. So knowing the difference is really important. So gagging is noisy. And gagging is good. Yeah, gagging is good. It's literally your baby's mouth going, oh, I'll push that back forward. Yeah, absolutely. So gagging is good. It can be quite painful to watch, and we have lots of parents that say, oh, it makes me very angsty. My mum, when I was baby-led weaning, oh, my gosh, my mum the constant javanna javanna the baby is choking and actually so this is why it's so important that you sit with them because the change in choking the the most visible thing is that there's no breath because you can't breathe when your airway is blocked so someone who is choking is silent there's no coughing spluttering lots of noise the other thing is that you see a change in colouring and it used to be used to hear a lot in first aid about people going blue oh yeah they go blue when they're choking which is fine if you're talking about someone with white skin but somebody with black or brown skin is going to go an ashy colour right yeah so they're going to lose that pigmentation around their mouth and nose and so that then is your quick I've got to get them up out of their chair and I've got to start delivering those back blows and chest or abdominal thrusts if you need it but having the teaching to know what to do is really important and shouting for help so you want to prevent a choking incident where you can but know that if it does happen that you've been to a class and you've learned and you know what to do.

36:26And that actually, something we've learned recently is that our kids are losing their teeth is that it's actually hard to work because they suddenly go, oh, I want an apple, but I can't actually bite it and chew it. So it's harder work, you know, so you need to think about manageability as they get older. I thought it was all when they're babies, but you know, you need to think about it as they get older as well. Yeah, absolutely. We've also asked the community to send in some questions. Yeah. So someone has asked, what do you do if your child gets burnt, they've not specified whether it's a sunburn or a normal burn.

36:55So let's go for both. We've talked about being in the sun. How should we treat that? Okay, so when somebody is burnt, the good news, I guess, for remembering, and we're always talking about remembering first aid, is that the treatment is the same. So effectively, what we want to do is we want to expose the flesh. So we want to be able to see it. So that's where the first aid is. If someone was significantly burnt, we'd want to remove clothing. We don't want to pull clothing away that's stuck to a burn. Okay, that's really, really important. And it's really important that we cool the burn. So we cool the burn under cool water.

37:25So if I burnt my arm, for example, I pop it under a cool running tap. But the key is that you need to do that for 20 minutes. And people go, whoa, I burnt my finger on the hob last night cooking tea and I held my finger for 30 seconds. It's not long enough. It won't stop the burning process and it won't take the burn out of the skin. So it's 20 minutes. And we have parents sitting in our classes that go, wow, like my baby's going to scream on my child. And it's 20 minutes of constant running water as well, because otherwise the water, I imagine, will heat up. Yeah, so it's cool running water, 20 minutes.

37:56If that's a part of the body that you can't put under a tap, it might be that you have to use the head of a shower or something like that. And it's really important that it's only the burn. We don't want to cool the whole person, because then we run the risk of them dropping in temperature, hypothermia, and all those sorts of other things that we don't want to go there. So 20 minutes cool running water, and then we need to cover the burn. And we cover the burn in cling film. People go, what? I thought that was just for my tea or my sandwiches. No, cling film, if you cover a burn, it means that one, if you go to hospital, if the burn is significant enough that you need to go to hospital, that your medical professional can look at it without having to take it off.

38:30Cling film doesn't stick to skin, which means that when it comes to removing it, to treat the burn as such, or whatever the burn specialist needs to do, is that it's not got fibres in it, so we're not using a towel or a tea towel or anything like that. So it's literally expose the flesh, cool it and then cover. what the Children's Burns Trust ask us to make sure we make absolutely clear is that if somebody has been burnt around their abdomen is that you take off your baby's nappy because we are hearing more and more instances of children being burnt by hot drinks particularly in like coffee shops etc the hot drink might be in front of them and they're sat on mum's lap and they pull the drink towards them and what happens with a nappy is it literally goes absorbs all the liquid but then it holds that burning liquid next to the skin and the burns units are seeing children coming in where the parent has done all the right first aid but they've still got the nappy on and the same with socks so if it's legs or it's near to the feet then socks so remember socks and nappies but that 20 minutes regardless of your burn type cool running water and then cover it and so it's actually quite straightforward people ask us a lot about what are the different types of burn?

39:42You hear things like first degree, second degree, third degree. There's all sorts of terminology. There's more medical terminology out there. Don't worry yourself with any of that. That's the job of the medical professionals. Just know that anything over the size of a 50 pence piece, you need to go to A &E. We need to get it checked out. If the skin is broken, there might be more risk of infection, etc. So again, that's why that cling film covering is really important. So 20 minutes, cool running water, cover, and then seek medical advice if necessary. And what about sunburn? So sunburn effectively is the same.

40:10You've got to cool the skin. We get parents go, oh, mortified. It just happened. I thought I'd covered everything. And then I saw the side of their little foot sticking out the pram or what have you. So it's the same. It's that cool running water because we need to cool the skin. And just keep an eye on them. Because sometimes if children have been in the sun, there might be some other things around heat exhaustion. So if they're sick or they're lethargic or they're seemingly unwell, then you might need to seek medical advice as well. So just be really cautious if they've been in the sun. And the sunburn is one thing, but also it might be that there's a heat exhaustion as well.

40:41Yeah. Another question is, what first aid can young children learn before starting primary school? Oh, do you know what? We love it. So when I started teaching parents and carers, which is how I started Mini First Aid, somebody said to me years ago, could you teach kids? And I was like, yeah, of course I can. This is brilliant. So we actually go into primary schools. And last year, we trained over 80 ,000 children. I mean, it's just bonkers. But we also teach preschoolers who are my absolute fave because they are like the lifesavers of the future. Well, you see the videos though, right? You see they're all like going around the internet where something's happened to a parent and how a toddler might react to things like that.

41:18And it's brilliant. It's brilliant. So I think preschoolers, one of the things to know is that a preschooler is not going to be able to give CPR. They are not strong enough. So we don't worry about teaching somebody that little how to give CPR. What's really important for children when they're little is that they know how to raise the alarm. So they know that 999 in the UK is the emergency number that they need to call. And they know that they need to get a grown up. So they need to get help. And if you're at home with young children, that might be that you've had a conversation with your children about how we get help.

41:51It might be how they open your phone, dare I say it, and dial 999. Or how if you still have a LUN line that they can make an emergency call. and then we teach very little children just the thing about rolling somebody on their side because if somebody is unconscious and they're rolled onto their side they're less likely to choke if they were sick or something like that so if somebody collapses for example just children pushing them onto their side we don't let little ones be consumed by getting it exactly perfectly right you know the recovery position that's what we just call about keeping somebody safe and getting help yeah and then the other thing that's really good with little ones is just helping them understand their own bodies and that if they are injured how an adult is going to help them so that might be applying a plaster it might be what happens if I bump my head so that when it happens they know what to expect because it's really frightening you know you bump your head in preschool and a grown-up comes towards you with a cold compress and you've got to sit down and you've got to hold this you know that's big that's massive when you're little so being teaching them so that they know it ahead of when it happens means they're like oh yeah it's bleeding but I know it's going to be okay you know and that makes them much more confident but just being able to raise the alarm is the big one for little ones yeah we asked the happy mum have baby instagram community if they've ever frozen or panicked in an emergency with their child and over half answered that they have or they worry that they would so how can parents navigate emergencies calmly without panicking?

43:22The key thing is they need to know that info. So it's the know it and not need it rather than the need it and not know it. And, you know, learn first aid, go find a class, you know, come and learn with us, you know, find it, watch it online, whatever it is that you do, make sure that you know before you're in an emergency, because with everything, you know, when you are going somewhere for the first time, you can be a bit nervous, but the second time you go, oh yeah, it's cool, I've done it. So it's almost like you need to do that with first aid, you need to know it so that then if you need to recall it then you can and then you can be calmer but so many parents come to our classes after an event because they go it happened and I was terrified or I shouted out and everyone on the scene was like no no and there's also this assumption that you've got to have some sort of medical training are you a nurse you know are you a doctor are you a surgeon no absolutely you just that's very helpful but you know but actually anybody can know how to do first aid.

44:16So it's just knowledge. Knowledge is the key thing. And that will probably make you worry less because, you know, if anything happens, you know how to react. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. 100%. Kate, we end the podcast with you completing three sentences. The first one is being a mum means? Well, I would always say that I'm constantly busy. it is probably the most satisfying job that I have ever had but also the hardest job that I have ever had yeah if I could tell you one thing it would be that just from what we've been talking about today it's that you need to know it make sure you've got the knowledge make sure you know how to save a life and I think about my brother all the time and you know and I think about what we do in his legacy and I think if I could tell you one thing it's just go learn first aid and I'm happy when when everybody's asleep but the thing is Kate are you ever awake now when everyone else is asleep well there is there is a challenge as my older children are becoming teenagers that they go to bed after I do maybe not even asleep maybe just calm and happy noise you know and I think our life is so outrageously busy and when everybody's good and we hear happy sounds in our house or sleepy sounds then life is is good yeah that's when I'm really happy okay thank you so much thank you pleasure