Baby Tiffany was having a tough day.
She had already had her diaper changed and been revived with CPR. Now she was being saved from choking.
“Has anyone ever had to deal with a choking infant?” asked Andrea Norris, a registered dietitian and community wellness manager at The Medical Center’s Health and Wellness Center at Greenwood Mall. “(They can choke on) the smallest things. They can put things in their mouths.”
It’s all in a day’s work for Baby Tiffany, a baby-sized CPR mannequin used at a recent Baby-sitting Clinic at the Health and Wellness Center. The class is designed to teach youths ages 11 to 17 about safety and how to handle emergency situations as well as tips on caring for children of all ages.
“It gives them knowledge on how to be not just a baby sitter, but a good baby sitter,” Norris said. “They learn infant and child CPR, fire safety, first aid, poison control, how to market themselves, bathing, feeding, who to answer the door for and how to answer the phone.”
When Norris asked the participants if they had dealt with a choking infant, a couple of youngsters out of the 22 in the group raised their hands. Norris then gave them first-aid instructions.
“Support her head,” Norris said as she placed her hand under and around Baby Tiffany’s jawline. “Angle her head down on your forearm.”
Norris then used her palm to firmly hit Baby Tiffany five times between her shoulder blades and then, supporting the back of her head, turned her face up and switched her to her other forearm.
“Do five chest compressions using your fingers,” she said, using two fingers to press at the center of Baby Tiffany’s breastbone.
After learning different first-aid techniques, the students formed a line to practice on Baby Tiffany. At one point, they changed her diaper, wiping down to prevent infection and using two fingers in the waistband of the diaper so that they wouldn’t fasten it too tight.
It’s one of several things that 11-year-old Faith McMillin of Franklin found particularly useful.
“I learned what to do in a fire, not to do homework while I’m baby-sitting and to stay close by while they’re sleeping,” she said. “I’ve been baby-sitting my little cousin and I wanted to know what to do if something happened.”
Ashton Brown, 13, of Lexington, was in Bowling Green visiting family and decided to take the class.
“My mom always tells me that I’m good with kids,” she said. “She told me I needed to take a baby-sitting class.”
Ashton also has experience in baby-sitting.
“I did one of those ‘mom’s helper’ things. She had four kids, all under 7,” she said. “I took the older kids. We played outside.”
Ashton said she learned a lot at the Baby-sitting Clinic.
“It’s nice,” she said. “I liked it.”
