A little over seven months ago, I had one of the scariest experiences as a mother. I had just finished some lessons with my oldest daughter, and began setting up for snack time. I sat my eleven month old baby girl on the high chair with a few gold fishes, and turned around to give her older two siblings some snacks. It just took that short moment of distraction. As I turned to look back at her, my skin froze and my mind went frantic for a second. She was turning blue, one little hand on her neck and the other trying to reach me. She was chocking. At that moment, as I hurried myself to her, I prayed “God, please help me do this, please help me do this”. I strapped off her seat belt, picked her up, laid her torso on my left arm and performed the heimlich maneuver. I have to say, I was scared to death, and kept praying until she coughed the gold fish out and started to cry. What a relief was to hear her cry. Tears were sliding down my face by then, and ran quickly to get my husband across the street.
Our lives are very delicate and in any minute you or someone you love can die accidentally with not even a sense of it. As parents and as our children’s first caregivers, we need to educate ourselves on how to be first responders in our home. I thought about mothers that have lost their children in circumstances like this one. That’s why I’m working on organizing a First Aid class at my church through the American Red Cross. You can visit their page and explore the different options they offer to take a class. It is worth the investment. Click here for their website.
Below is a video demonstrating how to perform the Heimlich Maneuver on an infant:
I’m thankful, that God brought to my mind my training received years before on first aid at such a crucial moment. The glory be to Him.
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).
[…] You are finishing with one of your kids’ lessons, and the older is getting ready to complete her assignment. You begin to serve snacks for everyone, and for a few seconds that you take to clean up the area and get ready for the next activity, you look at one of your kids, and she is choking. What do you do? Could you save her? This happened to me almost a year ago. […]