UKC

Had a brilliant day out yesterday with my daughter and friends walking in hills around Ladybower reservoir. She's almost 4 and this was her first relatively long walk without extensive carrying.

Anyway, the walk got me excited about all the future possible walks and climbing that I'll be able to do with the kids but that lead me to thinking about what I'd do if anyone got injured. I tend to take the lead in encouraging my friends to come out with their kids so feel a bit of leaders responsibility for safety.

Did a workplace St. John's first aid course years and years ago but have forgotten it all. Thinking about doing an outdoor course. Google brings up a lots of options but not sure what would fit for me.

Any suggestions. Thanks.

In reply to noteviljoe:
If you're a BMC club member they do subsidised 2 day mountain first aid courses which are meant to be pretty good.

Otherwise "REC level 2" (which has lots of providers, including freelancers and PyB) seems to be the industry standard for instructory types as far as I can tell.

In reply to climbwhenready:

Ta.

In reply to noteviljoe:
I would suggest a Forest School First aid course. This course covers what First Aid needed to cover juniors (12 months to Puberty) and Adults in an environment where access to help, Paramedic or MR, isn't going to be as soon as you would expect if you were at home.

I don't haveone running at the moment. You could try First Aid Academy or A2E First Aid Training. I'll have a look at yourlocation and maybe I'll be able to offer alternatives. Or contact your local Forest School organisers (there will be alocal council dept)

Good luck

First Aid Academy are local to you.

In reply to noteviljoe:

Try looking at: http://www.itcfirstaid.org.uk/courses-calendar.asp?subcategory=7

Or if you like Annieman's suggestion: http://www.itcfirstaid.org.uk/courses-calendar.asp?subcategory=9

In reply to noteviljoe:

HI,

I attended a 2 day first aid course at the Manchester Climbing Centre last year which was great. Aimed at people who, like yourself, go into the hills, very practical and hands-on. I think they are having another one coming up soon.

Karin

In reply to noteviljoe:

High peak first aid. Brilliant courses and they will tailor the course to your needs. Eg they have baby and child cpr dolls as well as adult size.

In reply to noteviljoe:

Shelter
Mobile phone fully charged
Blizzard blanket
First Aid course

in that order!

In reply to m0unt41n:

Why a blizzard blanket if you have a shelter? What will you do if your mobile has no reception. Knowledge is more useful than equipment.

In reply to noteviljoe:
St Johns do a two hour course for adults. If you've done the one for Work (which as far as I can remember is aimed more at what you can't do, than what you can ) it'll be a good refresher on up to date thinking.

http://www.sja.org.uk/sja/training-courses/courses-for-the-general-public/e...

Airways, breathing, circulation.
Recovery position.
Stop bleeding.
Burns.
Choking.
Keep casualty at correct temperature.
Reassure casualty.
Don't become a victim.

Not sure what else you need to know.

Most first aid becomes instinctive the more you do it. Which is the main problem if you're not around kids all the time and so don't get much of a chance to practice.

.

In reply to marsbar:


The OP refers to taking young children out walking and climbing. As a parent you will already have got basic plaster sticking experience which is going to cover anything that could be resolved by walking off.

So we are only talking about something which means the casualty cannot move and you need to get MR. In the majority of rescues involving groups, particularly DoE ages, we find a significant numbers starting to suffer from hypothermia and seriously so if winter. Kids get worse (and better) a lot quicker than adults so the first priority must be to shelter everyone.

Since you have to call out MR then you need a mobile phone. If there is no signal then someone has to go until they get a signal. Unless you are going to walk to a phone box or house there is no choice you must have a mobile phone. The phone, if a smart phone means that we call also SARCALL you to locate you.

The casualty is unlikely to be able to move much, otherwise they may be able to walk out, so they are going to get cold quickly even in a shelter. A Blizzard blanket will keep them warm, you can get them in it without making any injuries worse and you can check them. You do need to insulate them from the ground with any sit mats, bags etc.

The only thing you haven't done so far that maybe a First Aid course would prioritise is CPR and Traumatic Bleeding. Realistically CPR is not going to achieve anything without AED, Oxygen and BVM.

But you have protected the group and the casualty and called or sent for help.

In reply to noteviljoe:

Can't recommend the guys at Pure Outdoor enough. 2 day course, ITC is the governing body. Highly recommended and run by great staff.

Thanks for all the good advice.

I'm thinking a group shelter might be a cool thing to have even for non emergencies with the kids, somewhere to eat lunch if the weather turns - though only taking them out on good whether days at this age. Any other kit people would recommend to help make walking/climbing with kids trouble free?

In reply to noteviljoe:

I've used a group shelter for my two (now 3 and 5) for lunch stops, just to get out of the wind if nothing else, and it works well.

You'll probably be used to carrying spare socks as, if like my two, puddles and mud are to be jumped in, not walked around.

What has worked well for us is the all-in-one suits such as the Newt suit from Sprayway. We have combined this with a fleece all in one (so it's a smaller version of my caving attire) and that tends keep them warm and dry(ish). For hands, we have found a bigger mitten type glove that goes on over the top of everything (including any already wet woollen gloves they might be wearing) is quick and easy.

As for headwear, fleece beanie hats have been good but check fit of any coat hoods as my youngest gets really fed up of having to hold his hood up when walking into the wind.

Footwear has been wellies with thicker socks up to now but my eldest has just got a pair of waterproof boots now he's starting to walk longer distances and these will be passed down in due course.

A small flask of hot Vimto (+spare plastic cup(s) so that it cools quicker to a temperature they can drink it) and jelly babies are the other staple things in the rucksack.

Gavin

In reply to m0unt41n:

..and yet there are cases where CPR has been successful, even after a long time. The stats aren't good though.

There are some things you can do to make the casualty more comfortable for a walk, or with kids, a carry out. Or to determine if a carry off is a suitable course of action, or wait for the team.
There are things to do with spinal injury and maintenance of airways that would be useful to be trained on to prevent worsening.
There are useful things to do in terms of secondary surveys that might be useful to prioritise your particular case if other things are on the cards.

I'd find one that suits. But, yes you are right, any first aid is a balance between training, equipment and the ability to suitably substitute for what you don't have.

The courses I run are for beach lifeguards, and there we pretty much assume you have the equipment, so we deal very little with coping with things when you don't have XYZ and ABC. Our bag of first aid probably weighs in at about 10-12kg. Whereas I'd imagine an outdoors oriented course would do a lot more of coping with a more minimal kit.

Don't forget that skill fade is a huge issue - if you don't practice it regularly the knowledge can be lost pretty easily. This can be a case of just practicing once a month in your head to doing some kind of refresher.

In reply to Dave B:

In my original post I deliberately did not list First Aid kit but I did list First Aid Course.

On the basis that a lot of these discussions gets bogged down in the list of all the different things you could cram into a first aid kit. Whereas the priority is protection and getting help, then there is not much else you can do without a lot of specialise kit.

Other than that it is treatment for minor things which do not prevent walking off and realistically a simple ouch pouch and the knowledge any parent will have had to pick up looking after their kids covers most of these.

I strongly support your skill fade comment. Each time I have to prepare for the MR CasCare exam it brings it home to me how much I have forgotten. If you don't use it you will lose it.

In reply to Gavin:


<thread hijack>

Wow where does the time go!!!