Baby First Aid: Choking, Fever, and Emergency Steps

Ten minutes of setup now can save you from panic later. Do these things before you need them.

• Save your local emergency number in your phone under a name you can find fast, like "Emergency." In many places this is 911, 999, 112, or 000 — check yours and write it on a card on the fridge.
• Keep a small first aid kit where you feed the baby: gauze, sterile wipes, a digital thermometer, children's fever medicine, and a bulb syringe.
• Learn the infant choking steps once, out loud, on a doll or cushion. Practicing the motion is different from reading it.
• Put the poison control number next to the emergency number.
• Clear the floor and low shelves of anything small enough to fit through a toilet paper tube.
• Keep one door route clear so a responder can reach you quickly.

Check the kit every few weeks. Replace anything opened or expired. Tape the numbers to the fridge so anyone watching the baby can find them.

Choking in Babies Under 1: Back Blows and Chest Thrusts, Step by Step

If a baby under 1 is choking, act at once. Do not put your fingers in their mouth to search blindly — you could push the object deeper.

First, check if they can cough or cry. A strong cough means the airway is partly open. Stay with them and encourage coughing. If the cough is weak, silent, or they cannot breathe or cry, start back blows.

1. Lay the baby face-down along your forearm, head lower than the chest. Support the head and jaw with your hand.
2. Give up to 5 firm back blows with the heel of your hand between the shoulder blades.
3. Turn the baby face-up. Give up to 5 chest thrusts: two fingers on the lower half of the breastbone, pressing down about one-third of the chest depth.
4. Repeat 5 back blows and 5 chest thrusts until the object comes out or help arrives.

If the baby becomes unresponsive, call emergency services, start CPR, and continue until help takes over.

Fever in Babies: How to Take the Temperature and When It Means Call Now

Use a digital thermometer. For babies under 1, a rectal reading is the most reliable. Lubricate the tip, insert only about half an inch, and hold it still until it beeps. Ear and forehead thermometers are convenient but less exact in young babies. If a reading seems off, recheck.

What counts as a fever: roughly 100.4°F (38°C) or higher. Anything at or above that number is a fever, not a warm baby.

Call now — do not wait — if your baby is:

• Under 3 months old with any fever at all
• Hard to wake, limp, or unusually fussy
• Breathing fast or struggling
• Refusing feeds or has far fewer wet diapers
• Feverish for roughly 24 hours with no clear cause

While you wait: keep your baby lightly dressed, offer feeds often, and do not give fever medicine unless a clinician tells you to and gives a dose for your baby's weight.

Breathing Trouble, Unresponsive, or Seizure: What to Do in the First Minutes

Call emergency services immediately if a baby has trouble breathing, is unresponsive, or has a seizure. Do these steps while you wait.

Breathing trouble: Look for chest pulling in, flaring nostrils, grunting, or lips turning blue. Keep the baby upright and calm. Do not put anything in the mouth.

Unresponsive: Tap the foot and call the name. If no response and no normal breathing, start infant CPR at once.

1. Place two fingers on the center of the chest, just below the nipple line.
2. Push down about one-third of the chest depth, roughly 4 cm (1.5 in).
3. Give 30 compressions at about 100–120 per minute.
4. Give 2 small rescue breaths, then repeat the cycle.

Seizure: Treat any first seizure in a baby as an emergency — call for help right away, even if it stops within a minute or two. A first seizure can be a sign of fever, infection, low blood sugar, or another serious problem, and only a clinician can tell which. If the seizure lasts more than about 5 minutes or repeats, call emergency services immediately rather than driving.

While you wait, stay with your baby and follow these steps:

1. Lay the baby on the floor on their side, on a flat, safe surface.
2. Clear hard or sharp objects away from the head and body.
3. Loosen anything tight around the neck.
4. Time the seizure from the moment it starts. Note what the eyes, arms, and legs are doing.
5. Do not hold the baby down, and do not put anything in the mouth — not a spoon, not your fingers.
6. Do not give food, drink, or medicine until the baby is fully awake again.

After the seizure, keep the baby on their side and watch their breathing until help arrives. Note the time it started and how long it lasted so you can tell the clinician.

Bleeding, Burns, and Head Bumps: Fast Home Steps and the Call-Now Line

For any bleeding, apply firm, steady pressure with a clean cloth for roughly 5 to 10 minutes without lifting to peek. If blood soaks through, add another cloth on top and keep pressing. Call now if bleeding won't stop after about 10 minutes of pressure, spurts, or comes from a deep or gaping wound.

For burns, cool the area under cool running water for roughly 10 to 20 minutes. Remove clothing or jewelry near the burn unless stuck. Cover loosely with cling film or a clean, non-fluffy cloth. Call now for burns larger than a small palm, on the face, hands, or genitals, or that look white, brown, or charred.

For a head bump, do not pick the baby up and carry them around right away. If the baby fell from a height, was in a car crash, or you suspect a neck or spine injury, keep them still where they are and call emergency services. Moving a baby with a spinal injury can make it worse.

If the baby is alert, moving normally, and the bump was minor, you can pick them up gently and keep them calm. Then:

• Apply a cold pack wrapped in cloth for about 10 to 20 minutes.
• Watch closely for the next 24 hours, including during sleep — check on them every few hours.
• Call now if your baby vomits, is drowsy, won't wake, has a seizure, has a bulging soft spot, has clear fluid from the nose or ears, or has unequal pupils.

The Emergency Call Script: What to Say and What to Have Ready at the Door

When you call emergency services, the dispatcher needs three things fast: where you are, what is wrong, and what you have already done. Say your address first, including the apartment or unit number and the nearest cross street. Then give the baby's age, whether they are breathing, and whether they are awake.

Keep a script by the door or saved in your phone so you are not searching under stress:

• "My address is [full address, floor, unit, cross street]."
• "My baby is [age] and is [choking / not breathing / unresponsive / having a seizure / bleeding / burned]."
• "I have started [back blows / CPR / pressure on the wound]. The baby is [awake / not awake]."
• "The door is [unlocked / I am sending someone to meet you]."

Have these ready at the door: your phone on speaker, the baby's health card or a note of any medicines and allergies, and a spare blanket. Unlock the door or prop it open. Send one adult outside to wave the crew in. Stay on the line until the dispatcher says you can hang up.