Giving CPR to Toddlers

Choking can be fatal and a doctor is your first recourse in such a situation. Call 911 or your local emergency number before you do anything else. Obviously in a life-threatening emergency, you don€™t want to be reading information off the web. That€™s why every parent should get choking and CPR training at their local hospital.However, if you were to find yourself in this situation without a doctor or emergency facilities, here is how you can give CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) to the choking toddler.

• Place the toddler on a flat surface, face upwards.


• Cover the toddler€™s mouth with your mouth and blow in air two times. Each breath should take only one second.


• Support the head and neck with one hand and thrust the chest thirty times-be firm yet gentle as children's bones can snap easily.


• Continuously repeat the cycle of two breaths and thirty presses.


• The toddler should start breathing after four or five of such attempts.


• Whether or not the child starts breathing, get medical help as soon as possible.

Here is how to give correct chest thrusts:

• Press two or three fingers of your free hand to push on the breastbone.


• Apply pressure to the chest thirty times at the speed of hundred thrusts per minute.


• The thrust should take the chest at least to half or one third of the depth of the toddlers chest.

CPR can be given by one or by two persons. In there are two persons giving CPR, one person will press the chest and the other person will blow air into the mouth. Both actions should not be done at the same time. When one person blows air the other person should stop thrusting the chest and vice versa.

Obviously, in a life-threatening emergency, you don€™t want to be reading information off the web. That€™s why every parent should get choking and CPR training at their local hospital.

Paul Banas is a founder of GreatDad.com. He writes articles on parenting styles, parenting, pregnancy and dads, parenting tips, baby names, parents without partners and many more topics related to dads.