Mini First Aid - Everything you need to know

Mini First Aid joins The Project Baby Podcast for an informative and reassuring conversation about keeping your children safe when accidents happen.

From everyday bumps and burns to more serious situations, the episode focuses on practical advice, building confidence, and knowing how to respond calmly in those unexpected moments. It’s all about giving parents the knowledge and tools to act quickly and keep their little ones safe when it matters most.

Transcript

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to First Aid for Children

02:57 Burns and Scalds: Immediate Response

06:04 Understanding and Managing Fever

08:58 Cuts and Grazes: First Aid Essentials

12:05 CPR Techniques for Infants and Children

14:50 The Importance of First Aid Training

17:57 Choking: Prevention and Response

21:02 Recognizing and Responding to Rashes

24:09 Head Injuries: What to Watch For

26:59 The Story Behind Mini First Aid

29:57 Conclusion and Resources

Transcript

Natasha (00:00)

This episode is brought to you by BioGaia, a probiotic brand trusted by families like yours. From newborn drops to daily support for all ages, BioGaia is one of the world's most researched probiotics, available at larger Boots stores. Welcome back to the Project Baby podcast, where today we're joined by the founder of Mini First Aid, Kate. Welcome to the Project Baby podcast. Thank you for coming. So let's get down to things that do happen at home in and around with our children.

and how we can help them. So if a child has burnt themselves and they've pulled a boiling hot cup of tea on them, it happens, right? What can we do? What should we do? ⁓

Kate (00:41)

So one of the biggest and rising causes of burn injuries in babies and young children is hot drinks. And some of that happens at home, but it also happens when you're out and about. So you meet your lovely antenatal mum and dad friends, and you might all be sat in a coffee shop with a drink ahead of you. And babies like to explore, and they go to pull the drink, and it ends up on them. so we think probably historically we've always thought of burns as children reaching up and pulling drinks down.

It's a difficult one, isn't it? Because for parents, you're desperate to have a brew and if you get a hot drink, it's a gift, isn't it? But if it does happen, and it does happen, if it does happen and a little one pours a hot drink on them, the first thing is that you've got to stop the burning process so effectively, you've got to remove the garments. So if they're covered in a vest or a jumper or a top, whatever it is, you need to remove that as quickly as possible. And we would suggest...that you use a pair of really good first aid scissors so that you can cut the clothing and move it out of the way. It's not the time to save the garment. It needs to come off because you need to be able to see the flesh that's burnt. And quite often, if a drink has been poured towards the little one, it hits them in their abdomen. And the other place that then absorbs the hot drink is their nappy. So we always recommend nappy off as well so that it's not holding the hot drink next to the skin. So you've got the garment off, you've got the nappy off, and what you need to do is you need to then cool.

and  cool the burn. And we do that with cool running water. So it's cool water. So take baby to the sink or the nearest, wherever the nearest place is for water. And we're directing the water over the burn. Now, ideally, we don't want the rest of them to get cold, only the burn itself. And we're cooling the burn for 20 minutes. And that actually changed in first aid guidance a few years back now, but people still think that it's shorter than that. 20 minutes is a really long time.

But what we know from people like the Children's Burns Trust, who are an organisation that Mini Fairs Day partner with, is that we know that the actual healing process and the scarring is much more reduced if you've done that 20 minutes under cool running water. And your baby or your child is going to cry, right? Because nobody likes that cold. You've done it yourself, I'm sure. Caught yourself on the oven and you pop your finger under the tap just for a couple of moments, you go, it'll be all right. And then it carries on stinging.

So you actually do need to do that 20 minutes. And then once you've done the 20 minutes, what we need to do is cover, and we cover with cling film. Because one, we can see the wound, but also it means that it stops oxygen getting in, so it stops the burn from continuing, and it keeps the germs out, which is another cause of scarring. And then we're off to hospital. So anything over the size of a 50 pence piece, and we're taking little ones to hospital with a burn, and also if they've burned anywhere on their face.

or on their genitals, we need to take them to hospital regardless of the size of the burn. And that's where the experts then take over with burns treatment. The other key thing to remember is no lotions and potions. So there's loads of old wives' tales out there of things that we hear about in the industry. And I'm not even going to say them because I don't want people to remember the words. But there are products that people think, you put that on a burn, things that you might think are cooling, for example. Absolutely nothing. You need to make sure that all you do is cool for 20 minutes under cool running water and then cover. The one question we do get asked is about burn gel products that come in first aid kits. And you can use a burn gel because effectively it's a version of water, but that's not instead of water. So you'll do 20 minutes, cover, and then if you've got a burn gel in your first aid kit, great. If not, nothing else, no other lotions and potions. Get yourself to accident and emergency.

Natasha (04:11)

Still do the 20 minutes.

Kate (04:21)

and get the specialist looking at your children's skin. And what we know is if you follow that protocol, we know that the recovery from burns injuries is really, good. And so one of the things that the Children's Burns Trust ask us to do is to talk to parents about, one is remembering to remove nappies in the case of a burn, the other one is socks if water has run down or burning liquid has run down the legs, and just as a little plea from us, if you're out having a coffee with your friends, enjoy it but just make sure that your babies are way back from the table so that they can't pull drinks towards them. 

Natasha (04:56)

Yeah of course and and temperatures yeah they all get them right I've just had a call to say my little boy is that how we were temperature yeah what is the guidelines on the temperatures when is too high when are we seeking help

Kate (05:09)

Yeah, okay, so for babies and children, we want to talk to a medical professional if our baby's temperature is above 38. Now, the difficulty for us is that sometimes we don't know what that's risen from. So one of the things that I would say is a good mum hack really is to make sure you know what your baby's temperature is or your child's temperature is when they're well. So use a little tympanic thermometer.

one of the little digital ones because they will give you the most accurate reading, pop it under their armpit, so rather than the forehead ones, and get a reading when they're well, write it in their red book if you've got it, put a circle around it and you go, that's what my baby's temperature is when they're fit and well. And then when your baby is unwell, you know where it's gone from and to, which means that when you're talking to a medical professional, you can say to them, look, it was, it's normally 37 and it's now reading as 38. 38 is your marker to be talking to a medical professional.

Now they may tell you at that point that they want you to give your baby or young child some paracetamol suspension like Calpol or something like that, but normally they'd want to see them first before making that advice. So don't be afraid to seek medical advice when your baby is unwell. And the other thing with temperatures is that the reason that we have a spike in our temperatures is because we're fighting some sort of virus or infection.

And so what we need to get to the bottom of is what's causing that temperature. So actually temperatures are a very natural thing, but what we need to do is we need to get to the bottom of what it is. And in most cases, it's normally just a bug or a virus that they've picked up, which they will fight using their own immune system, but sometimes it can indicate things that are slightly more untoward. And so in which case, that's why always medical professional when you get to 38.

Natasha (06:53)

Great advice. And let's talk about cuts and grazes because they get them right all the time and they're going to get them throughout their whole childhood. What are we doing when our child comes home with quite a nasty gash on their knee, for example?

Kate (07:09)

My children are in primary school ⁓ and they come home with notes all the time to say something has happened, something has happened. ⁓ And generally, part of exploring the world and letting your children explore the world, explore freely, etc. means that there's going to be bumps and scrapes. And actually when children are very little, it's actually their own awareness of their mobility, their body size, their shape, whether they can fit through things is actually not matured enough. So that's why toddlers walk like, you know, they're all over the place. They're literally toddling and they stumble and you might watch them and go, they got a trip, they got a trip. And, you know, we don't, we don't want to say wrap them up in cotton wool and never let them explore. One of the things I would always say is make sure you've got a first aid kit with you. Put it in your bag, make sure it's under your pram so that you know that you can, you can respond if they do get a cut or a graze. Generally cuts and grazes are normally superficial.

But one of the things that happens is when you break that top layer of your skin, you get a lot of blood quite quickly. So sometimes it can look more dramatic than it is. And it can be very bright red blood. The key thing is that we need to stop the bleeding. So we want to apply some pressure to stop the bleeding. And we want to use a dressing pad or something that's clean and absorbent to do that. We also need to make sure that we clean the wound. And we don't need anything fancy to do that. We just need soap and water.

So people go, what, you'd use soap on a cut? And that's absolutely what you need to do because you need to make sure that the cut is really, really clean because it's actually more like the problems are more likely to come from infection than anything else. So we've stopped the bleeding, we've cleaned it. If we don't have access to soap and water and we're out and about, then we can use a cleansing wipe. I would avoid the ones with alcohol in because they sting, which is really tricky for little ones. So look for a wipe in your first aid kit that's alcohol free, and only wipe once across the wound so that you're not wiping the infected or dirt back in. So wipe once, use a fresh one, wipe again or if you're at home use soap and water and then cover with a plaster.

Natasha (09:12)

Yeah, perfect. We mentioned the first aid kit. What should be in our What is in a mini first aid kit? Let's start with that.

Kate (09:16)

⁓ my gosh.

Right,

okay, so when I sort of roll back to when I first started running classes, I used to talk to people about having a first aid kit and I used to direct people to the supermarket and just say, oh, just go and grab one. And then it sort of landed with me that actually I needed to create one that was ours effectively so that had in it what I would recommend. So in a mini first aid kit is a really good pair of first aid scissors. Now this isn't the rubbishy scissors that you might think you could cut your nails with. This is the kind of scissors that would cut through a seatbelt.

If you were in a car crash or needed to release an infant car seat, or would cut through denim or leather or whatever you need to cut through if there was an emergency and you need to get somebody out of their clothes. So a really good pair of first aid scissors are an absolute top. Plasters, and you need loads. And whatever shapes and sizes, whatever you fancy, plasters-wise. You need bandages, you need wipes. Another really top suggestion for us is that you have safety pins, because people, why would you need a safety pin? Do we need some sort of, what are we doing with a safety pin? And it can be as simple as,

you can use your children's clothes to make a sling. So rather than trying to use a triangular bandage, which is really old school first aid and trying to fathom it out, remember last time you did a first aid course, is actually you can just use the, for example, if it was their arm, you could just use the cuff of their jumper and pin it to their jumper and then you've automatically got a sling. So if you needed to keep something to stop it moving so safety pins are an absolute must. Wipes, good burn gel.

And then you can start to add to your first aid kit anything that's specific to your child. So if that's a particular colour plaster that they particularly have to have, it might be that there's medications or spare inhalers. It might be spare EpiPens, things that you know that your child needs and you need to lay your hands on quickly. And the key thing with the first aid kit is making sure you've got it with you. And that's really obvious. But when our classes, we always say to people, come on, put your hand up, where's your first aid kit? And they all go, it's in my bathroom cabinet, which is...useless if you need a plaster when you're in a coffee shop or when a little one's fallen over in the park. So first aid kit at home, brilliant. Put it in the room that you spend most of your time rather than your bathroom, because it's more likely to be living room or kitchen where you're going to need it. And first aid kit under your pram or in your change bag. And you will be everybody's best friend then when you're out and about. people are I've got a plaster. Yeah, that's it. Some tweezers to get this. Absolutely, yeah.

Natasha (11:43)

Love it. So let's talk about some more serious things. We hope it never happens, but if it ever did and we needed to do CPR. Let's start with ⁓ an infant. Obviously we're going to call for help straight away, but we can get things going ourselves until help arrives. The guidance.

Kate (12:05)

Well this is an interesting one actually because the guidance has just changed. So the resuscitation council that govern first aid companies and their teaching have just, every five years they update policy and protocol and sometimes those updates are fairly low level and what have you but this time this year it's been a pretty mega update and that's been based on clinical research to say actually what's the most effective way we'll do CPR. So if you've done first aid training before or you've watched a YouTube video or you've seen something on a you know with from mini first aid or any of the other first aid providers out there where you'll see that two fingers are placed in the centre of a baby's chest and you press down. Actually what we're doing now is we're using a process called encircling where you put your hands around the baby's torso and cross your thumbs together to press down and what we know is that actually gives you a better effective rate of pressing down.

Giving breaths is exactly the same as it's always been, which is where on a baby you put your mouth over their mouth and nose. And the rate that we give CPR is that we start by giving five breaths into our baby's mouth, nice gentle breaths, and then we give 15 chest compressions followed by two breaths, 15, two, 15, two. 

Natasha (13:17)

So you start with the five

Kate

And then you do your 15 chest compressions, which now has this new technique, which I thoroughly recommend people make sure they're really familiar with, and then two breaths and you keep alternating on there. And that has changed. So we have seen, at Mini First Aid, we've seen loads of people coming back and going, I need to relearn, I need to know this new process. Don't panic if you're listening and you're thinking, oh, well last, when I did a first aid course, I was taught something different. What you've been taught will still work, but all of the providers out there will have changed their protocol in 2026. Everybody has to change their teaching in 2026. Is that...⁓ the new way of giving a baby so that somebody under the age of one has changed. So both the technique and the number of repetitions that you do and so it's a really good opportunity to revisit to make sure that you feel really really confident and getting help. Like you said you've got to shout for help really quickly and we know that if you've got your phone you can call 999, you can put your phone on hands-free and the wonderful thing if you've ever had the joy of phoning the emergency services is that when you phone 999 The minute you've got that familiar voice on the phone, they will talk you through what you need to do. The key thing is that you've got to have the confidence to be able to do it. And we get loads of parents say that they are frozen fear. You know, it's this, can't do it. I don't know what I'm doing. Or they panic and they go into panic mode. And that's why we advocate for learning first aid, because actually what you need is that muscle memory where you go, yeah, I've got it. I remember it. I remember it. I did a class. I remember it. I know what I'm doing.

And I know how to give my baby CPR because quite frankly, it's everybody's worst nightmare, isn't it? Is that, you your baby stops breathing and ⁓ you never want to be in a position where you go, I couldn't do it because I didn't know how. Which was the whole premise that I started Mini First Aid was because, you know, that happened to our family and I wanted to make sure that it never happened to anybody again, if possible. And so, yeah, so baby first aid, baby CPR is really, really important. Just make sure you're familiar with the new techniques.

Natasha (15:19)

What about for a child?

Kate (15:20)

Right, so as a child, so children go from age one up until 13, so that's when they hit puberty. So when we're talking about children and the numbers stay the same, which means that we're still doing that five breaths at the beginning and then we're doing the 15 chest compressions and two breaths, 15 chest compressions and two breaths. So it's those numbers that have changed. But instead of...

using the encircling where we're putting our hands around the baby's torso, actually child's torso, sorry. What we're doing is we're using the heel of our hand and we're using the heel of our hand in the centre of the chest. And a good way to visualise, I know we're on a podcast, but a good way to visualise where you would be put in your hand ⁓ or your crossed thumbs if you were dealing with a baby is if you look at your baby's topless torso and you can see their nipples, effectively you're in a straight line and you're bang in the middle. In between them. So that's where you want to go with your heel of your hand. ⁓ Sometimes parents will say to us, what if I get the numbers wrong? So you've said I've got to do 15 compressions, pressing down really firmly. I'm pressing down at a good rate because it's important that we're going at about 120 beats per minute because we're pumping a muscle, the heart. What happens if I get the numbers wrong or I lose count? And the reality is that it's better to do something than nothing at all. So if you've got the numbers slightly out, it wouldn't really matter.

But when we are teaching, we have to give a set number. So that's why you're here. That's why you're here. The set number. And the other thing I think is really important to remember when you are giving CPR is that your baby or your child, whoever you're having to give CPR to, or an adult, is that they need to be on a firm surface. So not on a bed because it's squidgy. We need them on the floor or on a table if they're a baby because it needs to not have any give underneath them when you're pressing. And a question that we sometimes get asked is, “Could I break their ribs giving CPR”. Which sounds awful and it sounds so graphic, doesn't it? But the reality is the heart sits under the chest cavity and it sits under the ribs, which means that it is quite possible that you break ribs giving CPR. But I was always saying to people, ribs can be fixed. And if you break a rib in saving your child's life, it's immaterial. So, you know, don't be put off by that.

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Natasha (18:19)

And your classes, how many franchises have you got across the year?

Kate (18:22)

So we've got 72 at the moment, so we've got the whole of the UK covered and we're training nearly 2,000 families now every week. It's utterly bonkers and

Natasha (18:33)

It's so important, right? Because I think we take that for granted of knowing all these first aid bits for our children. I think we do so much, we buy them all the nice prams and we do all of that. But actually the biggest investment we probably could...

Kate (18:45)

It's to save their lives. It's to save their lives. Yeah, 100%. And this is not to give anybody a hard time, but the number of people that I meet that go, okay, we've been meaning to do your class. We've been meaning to come and do it. Oh yeah, it's on the list, it's on the list. And it's like, just do it, just do it. Come and learn with us. And for us, all you need to do is put your postcode into the mini first aid website and it will bring up where this class is. And they are literally right across the UK. And if you can't get out and you need it to come to you, we can come and teach you at home.

or we can teach you online. So there's all sorts of different ways of learning. And one of things that we're seeing more and more of now is grandparents coming to train with us. And that's because we know that grandparents are propping up the childcare sector, aren't they? You know, there's so many grandparents that have ⁓ responsibility with childcare and they almost feel...

and added pressure because they've got to give them back in one piece. And so we would always say to people, when you have your baby, invest in a first aid class, come and learn with us, but also recruit your friends and family to come and do it with you because then that gives you the confidence that after you've had a baby, that first night out or those first few hours that someone goes, go on, go to the pub or go for a walk and you go, gosh, I've got to walk out and leave them. You just need to be comfortable that if something did happen, whoever's looking after them.

knows what to do but also knows up to date because there are so many protocol things that change. You know ask your grandma or your grandpa about burns or CPR in their day and they will tell you a completely different way of treating and so things have moved on. Medicine has moved on, science has moved on, we know more about the human body and how it works so we want to make sure that everybody does the know the best that they can for babies and children yeah yeah.

Natasha (20:33)

What's the most common question you get at a Mini First Aid?

Kate (20:35)

The big one is choking. So big one is choking and that is around not so much, you know, we sort of leave the weaning experts to do the weaning experts and nutrition and what have you, but it's the what do I do if my baby chokes. So that's a biggie and then it's just making sure that you know how to do the chest thrusts. What do we And the back blow. So on a baby under one, it's the new encircling technique. So it's this new technique that we're talking about now where you put the thumbs together, locked over each other and you press down firmly.

and we do that five times before turning and we give back blows to our baby. So you alternate, you actually start with a back blow on the shoulder blades, five times, turn your baby over and do five firm press downs on the chest, it's called a chest thrust. When your baby hits their first birthday, they turn into a child ⁓ and we change our technique slightly, which is that we still give those blows on the back, really firm blows on the back, up to five times and then we do an abdominal thrust.

used to have another name, it used to be called the high-limb manoeuvre, that might be what people are familiar with. It's now called the abdominal thrust, where you're pacing a sort of a locked fist into the centre of the abdomen and pressing in and lifting up because you're forcing the air to come out of the lungs and force the object out. This is a very quick, abridged version of how to do it. And this is why learning with a mannequin and getting your hands on life-size...real body feel is really, really important because that's quite difficult. People might be listening going, well, this sounds great, Kate, but how do I actually do it? that's the fear factor. And it's not just parents coming to our classes, but also when we go in to do workplace and we train in nurseries, preschools, schools, the teachers are terrified. And I think some of that is because

the media coverage now is so much more, isn't it? We all know if a child chokes in a school in Southampton, we all know about it in Glasgow. You know it's that. And so because of this national representation that you get of stories, which is good, but it also means that the horror stories share and it makes people very, very nervous. So it's having the confidence that you go, right, I leapt into action. I recognize the signs of choking. And one of the things, that we talk about in our classes is that historically you always used to talk about somebody turning blue when they choke because of lack of oxygen. Well, the challenge is if you have black or brown skin, you don't go blue because your skin doesn't have the pigment to see blue, right? So actually it's a grey, ashy colour. So one of the things that we will talk about in our first day classes is how you recognise a baby or a child or even an adult, who has black or brown skin and what they look like when they are choking so that you know the actions that you need to take because if you're waiting for them around their mouth to go blue, it's not going to happen. So that's really, really important as well is that you're familiar, not for the children that you're with, your own children and that you see your or their skin colour in your first aid teachings. That's really important. Yeah. Yeah.

Natasha (23:37)

And another thing we need to touch on is rashes. ⁓ like the amount of rashes kids get. When do you know you need to react?

Kate (23:40)

Gah!

Yeah, yeah. So I think it's a really tricky one for us because as a first aid provider, we're not a doctor. And we will quite often find ourselves in first aid classes where somebody will come up to us at the end and just sort of roll up their baby's baby grow and go, what do you think? What do you think? And so my clinical advice would be you need to seek medical advice. You need to speak to somebody. And there's a couple of things that you might want to rule out, whether you've changed depending on where the rash is, whether there's been any changes in what you're washing with, what your baby's having to eat, all of those sorts of things, things that are on their skin, new products, that sort of stuff, because they're the sorts of questions that you're going to get asked by a medical professional. The key thing as well is that you need to be the voice for your baby or child, particularly if they're not speaking yet or they don't really understand what's going on, because the first thing a doctor's going to ask you is, is this normal? And if you go, yeah, every time they eat this, they get this red rash or every time we go in the sun, we put on this sun cream and they get this sort of prickly heat type thing. So being able to advocate for your child is really, important and nobody will ever tell you off for wasting a medical professional's time if you are genuinely concerned because sometimes you're not the doctor and that's what the doctors are there for.

And babies, my children get these virally rashes. They'll get a really nasty cold and be really heavy with it and be quite rashy and pimply. And actually, I even, in the years of working, the number of kids I've had, I still go, I need to go and seek medical advice. And then what will happen is that then your medical professional will take you down a load of questions that will ask you all about what's gone on around the skin. Is it itchy? All of those sorts of things. And then they'll try an ascertain and then give you some treatment. So it might be that it's an antihistamine, it might be that actually it's more serious and they need to have it investigated further. sometimes a rash will come with other symptoms and those are all the things that you then need to take to your GP or your medical professional and just say, this isn't right, this isn't normal for my baby. The other thing I would say with rashes, which I think is really important, is don't go to Dr. Google. Don't go to Dr. Google and don't go to Facebook groups to say, has anyone seen this? this, yes. I see that all time. Yeah, you see a lot, know, and there's some brilliant baby communities online and they have a real purpose around giving people support and nurturing and connectivity and all of those things, but they are not for diagnosing illnesses because one, there's a risk that something serious could be missed, but two is that you don't know who's giving you the advice, who's behind the keyboard, you know, advising you back. Google potentially could misdiagnose. ⁓ and things like, know, newer functions, chat, GPT, you know, all those sorts of AI things where you could upload a picture and say, what you think is this? And all the AI will do is just search the internet and come back and say it may be this. So, yes, you could have a look, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't replace a medical professional, you know, with, you know, with the actual, you know, with a device. And because you could make it worse and go, my gosh, it's going to be this, it's going to be this. But equally you could then put something down as, it's fine, and it not be. So I think, yeah, medical professionals are always your first route.

Natasha (26:59)

So let's talk about children bumping their heads. It's so complicated.

Kate (27:04)

my gosh, right? So unless you're just thinking about my twinnies, my youngest, so I've got six kids, right? And I've got more bump pads in my fridge than you can possibly imagine, for everybody. And when they're little, and I'm thinking about my youngest twins particularly, is one is that one would go one way and one would go the other and I go, where they gone, where they gone? But I would find that they'd get under tables or under chairs and then try and sit up and then bump their heads. And you'd know, you'd know, you'd be like, they're gonna hit their head.

And you have, I know I said it earlier, you've got this option, haven't you, where you wrap them up in cotton wool and you don't let them do anything. And I don't think, you do need to baby proof your home. I do think it's a really good thing to think about risks and what have you. I also think it's really, really important that if your child is on a moving item, so a skateboard, a scooter, a bike, they wear a helmet. That's an absolute given. And I would go as far as to say, if there's any tantrums over that, well then we don't go. The wheels don't come, that's the rule in our house. ⁓

because we've seen what happens with head injuries when children don't wear helmets, but your typical bumps, so let's just say a toddler's gone into the corner of a table, right, and they've caught themselves, they've got a bump, and what happens is very quickly you get a lump on, let's say forehead, for example, for ease, so that everybody listening can sort of visualise it. So a lump comes up pretty quickly, and sometimes it's called like an egg, yeah, so the lump comes up, and actually that's a good thing, because what's happening is the fluid is rushing to where the side of the injury is and going, protect it, protect it. There's lots more clinical terms for this, right? But this is how I would describe it. It's like it's trying to protect it. And so it's swelling outwards. And actually in first aid, we are more concerned about dents in than lumps out. Because lumps out for us, good thing, because that means all the fluid has rushed there. So what we need to do is we need to apply a cool compress. So I would always say have a cold compress in the door of your fridge. It's a thing. And have those instant ones in your first aid kit when you're out and about so that you can just...

break them and then activate them. But have a cool compress in your fridge so that you can lay your hands on it and pop it on ⁓ baby or child's head, whoever's bumping their head. And I would give them a cuddle and I would suggest that you have at least 10 if not 15 minutes where you're watching them, have a story, put the telly on, whatever it is you need to do, have a cuddle whilst you're giving. And that coolness provides natural pain relief. And what it also does, it allows you time to assess how they are whilst they're blissfully unaware. They've stopped crying, the cool compress is, we've got a teddy compress, we've got it there, we're holding it on the head, and you can then assess how they are. And the times that we're more concerned is when they suddenly are going to sleep at a point in the day where you wouldn't normally expect them to go to sleep, is that they're sick, or they feel dizzy, or they have slurred speech. Now that's quite tricky with a baby because they might not be talking yet.

But you know your baby and if they are behaving in a way that is not normal for them after a head bump, then we're going to A &E. Yeah, we need to go and we need to get it checked out because concussion, if anyone listening has ever had concussion, it's where your brain is shaken inside your skull and it's the most horrible feeling. You feel really weird. It can cause you to be confused. It can cause you to feel really desperate to sleep or want to sleep. It can make you feel quite sick.

And that needs to be treated and monitored by a healthcare professional. They need to check that nothing else on toward is going on inside that skull. Your head is the heaviest part of your body. And when you look at a baby, a baby's pretty much in thirds when they're little. Their head, their torso, and then their legs. And their heads are really heavy. It's why everyone says to you when you're holding a new baby, watch their head, watch their head, because of their neck control. But their heads are these great big heavy lolly things that they are going to bash into things. So we always want to be cautious.

We want to make sure we monitor them after a head bump. And if you are concerned in any way, then we're taking them to A &E to get checked out. And I would also say that if you are handing your baby on to someone else, right? So perhaps that you're just about, because it always happens when you're just about to go out the door for work or that night out that you've been waiting forever, whatever it is, you're just about, and you're handing them over to your babysitter or to the nursery key worker or whoever it is.

Tell them that there's been a head bump so that they can carry on monitoring them for you. So if you've got school-aged children you might be familiar with the fact that you get a bump note coming home from school and that is the school's way of saying “they bumped their head today now it's over to you to monitor them and that's them” handing over the responsibility and that's really important with head bumps because it's very rare but occasionally you can have a head bump and the concussion can be delayed and that is where, probably there's something more serious going on. And it might be that the concussion symptoms come later in the day and suddenly your baby or your child starts to behave in a way that's not normal for them, or they're overly drowsy, or they suddenly vomit without any warning and we need to go to hospital. But if we've got no reason for that, then we might not know. But if we go, oh, well, of course, they banged their head this morning, or they banged their head on the tap in the bath, which is where my children used to do it a lot, is that you can take as much information as you can to the hospital. Generally...head bumps are all right and it's part of the thick, tapestry of life is that, you know, they have these bruises and I remember my Alfie, who's now 15, I remember when he had his first head bump and I was mortified. It was Christmas Eve and he just sort of face planted in our hall which was tiled and he got this big egg on his head and we rushed him to A&E because we were really worried about him and they examined him and checked and they were happy there was no concussion and we'd done the cold compress, we'd done everything we should have done, but we just needed that reassurance and we'd gone to hospital and actually the paediatrician at the time just went, I think you just need to brush his fringe over it, then off you go and have a nice Christmas. But I felt reassured because I'd had it checked out because I couldn't quite answer the questions around, is he being as normal as we would expect? So, you know, we went and got him checked out, yeah.

Natasha (33:09)

Kate, I'm really interested in why you started Mini First Aid.

Kate (33:13)

So this is always a one that I go, right, I'm going to do it and then I'm not going to cry. I had a younger brother and I say had in past 

Natasha

Do you to do this? 

Kate

Yes, I'm absolutely fine to do it. I don't mind doing it at I feel like I'm doing him a service by telling the story. So my brother was at university. He was at university in Portsmouth. He'd finished his degree. He was really clever. He'd finished his degree. In fact, he got a first class honours, although he never knew he got a first class honours because the night that he finished his exams, he went out celebrating with his friends. And unbeknown to my brother, he had a cardiac condition called cardiomyopathy. You hear it a lot in the press about ⁓ people, footballers and things suddenly collapsing in cardiac arrest. And he was called Matthew. And he collapsed and went into cardiac arrest. And the people that were with him didn't know how to do CPR. And we don't hold any malice against them. And they tried. They attempted. This was years ago now, so less of urgent paramedics. The paramedics got there, but not in the time.

No defibrillators, which you would see now in public places, et cetera. And he died. And for us as a family, we lost him. It was just utterly tragic because we had no warning that it was going to happen. But the biggest thing was the fact that the people who were there on the scene had to live with that. He was their best mate. And that's what they went through. And it really bothered me.

Not that they'd done something wrong, but the fact that why didn't everybody just know? Why didn't people know how to do CPR? And the reality is, is that for most people, first aid is a tick box exercise. If you get told by your boss at work you've got to do a first aid course, you probably roll your eyes and go, do I have to? And if you haven't been to scouts or guides, you've probably not learned it as a young person. So I was like, why is it not a thing? Why is it not a? And then when I had Alfie, ⁓ a few years after Matt died, when I had Alfie and I got given him in the hospital, I just had this overwhelming desire to protect him, which you can't articulate until somebody's given you your own newborn baby. You can't, it's just... And all I wanted to do was keep him safe. And the thought of something happening to him just meant I was like, I've got to solve this issue. So I started, I trained up to be a first aid instructor and I started teaching locally, local friends, and it sort of...exploded, I think is probably the best word, and I ended up being really, really busy because everyone was like, my god, this is amazing. And then I expanded the course to not just be CPR, but be all the things that we've talked about today and more, loads more, you know, all the things that parents need to cover so that if anyone ever found themselves in a situation where their precious person was not responding, that they'd know what to do. And now, as well as babies and children, ⁓ or parents, we teach in schools.

We're last year, we trained over 60,000 school children last year. It's just unbelievable. And then we go into the workplace now, because my other mission is to make sure that workplace first aid is not boring. No one's going to roll their eyes on our classes. And it just, I just want people listening to go, oh my God, I need to learn. Go find first aid class and make sure that you learn and you know what to do, because then you know you can always say.

I tried or I've remembered how to do it. And that phrase when people say, or I was in a situation and I just panicked, that's the bit that I want to prevent from happening. And I just sort of think, my brother and I had this really lovely relationship in the that we hated each other as kids. But as adults, we got on. And I miss him because he'd have been a great uncle. He'd have been an amazing uncle. I do wonder where he'd be now. But I sort of feel like he might be looking from the clouds going.

Yeah, this is cool. We're saving lives. So literally, having an invitation from you guys to come and talk, was just like, anywhere where I can go and go, let's just raise awareness for people to learn first aid because these babies are so damn precious, aren't they? And, you know, God, I love it with our classes because you get tough lots of cuddles. But it just, you know, 100%.

Natasha (37:26)

The the reward, right? parents leave with confidence.

Kate (37:29)

We have life-saving stories coming into the office now and people that go, because of what you taught me, I knew what to do, and you go, right, my job's done now. Yeah, Yeah, saving lives, 100%. And one baby at a time.

Natasha (37:43)

You should be very proud of yourself. you. But if our listeners want to find out more about where they can find your information, they want to join a class because they also need to learn this invaluable information, where can they find you?

Kate (37:54)

So Mini First Aid, if you Google us Mini First Aid or minifirstaid.co.uk is the website, we're on all the socials as well. ⁓ And just pop your postcode into our website and there will be a class near you that you can come and learn with us. And tell your friends and bring your grandma. 

Natasha (38:11)

Yes. Perfect. And one question I ask all of our guests is, what is your love language?

Kate (38:17)

So my love language is a cuddle with all of my kids. And actually that's quite, as a mum of six, to get all of them to give me a hug, even at the same time, mean that's rare. But a big hug, a big hug. And then if my husband wades in as well, then I'm a happy girl. Simple things. So my eldest Alfie is 15, and then I've got a 13 year old daughter, and then twins that are nine, and twins that are seven.

Kate (38:46)

I'm on a day off, it's lovely. It's lovely to on a podcast and I get a day off, it's such a treat. Yeah, home is madness. Yeah, it's fab. Yeah, yeah, it's fab.

Natasha (38:52)

I bet, but full of love.

Keep doing what you're doing. Thank you. you so much for coming on the podcast. If you have loved today's episode just as much as we have loved sharing all the information with you, make sure that you hit the subscribe button and tune in to the next episode soon.

Kate (38:59)

Thank you.