🩺 Health · Birth through childhood
🚨 Getting trained in infant & child first aid
Hands-on infant and child first-aid training helps caregivers respond to choking, breathing emergencies, burns and injuries. Arrange training during pregnancy or when you can after birth. In Nigeria, call 112 for an emergency.
What a suitable course should cover
- Recognising choking and practising age-appropriate responses, including infant back blows and chest thrusts.
- Assessing responsiveness and breathing, and safely positioning a child who is unresponsive but breathing normally.
- Infant and child CPR with supervised manikin practice and appropriate AED use.
- Burns, falls, seizures, poisoning and when to seek urgent medical help.
Make training practical
1. Find a qualified provider
Ask your maternity team, primary healthcare centre or a recognised first-aid organisation in Nigeria about current infant and child courses. Confirm instructor qualifications and that hands-on practice is included.
2. Include regular caregivers
Where possible, both parents and other regular caregivers should attend. Choose a language everyone understands and ask about infant-specific skills rather than relying on adult-only training.
3. Practise and ask questions
Use the training manikins for choking and CPR skills, never a real baby. Learn how to distinguish normal breathing from abnormal gasps and when to call for help.
4. Prepare your home response plan
Save 112, your address and access instructions where caregivers can find them. Emergency routing and arrival vary in Nigeria: also save your maternity unit or nearby emergency department number and arrange a safe transport backup. Keep a stocked first-aid kit and discuss who calls, who provides care and who meets arriving help.
5. Refresh and act when needed
Refresh skills as your training provider advises. During an emergency, call 112, use speakerphone if possible and follow the dispatcher's instructions rather than searching for a video. If you cannot connect, activate your local emergency and transport backup while providing trained first aid.
Classic mistakes
- ❌ Waiting to see if serious symptoms settle Breathing difficulty, blue colouring, floppiness or unresponsiveness needs urgent emergency help. A baby under three months with a temperature of 38°C or higher needs urgent medical assessment.
- ❌ Treating an article as full training Written advice can reinforce learning but does not replace supervised practice and feedback.
A local detail, or your own experience with this guide? Write to the team
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When in doubt, contact your doctor or midwife. For a life-threatening emergency, call 112.