Bring your questions and concerns regarding emergency care of your toddler. Leave empowered and confident that you and / or your caregiver can respond reliably when your child needs you most.

Find out why simply taking a CPR class and calling 911 is not enough.

Learn how to clear a blocked airway, respond to a head injury, use an epinephrine auto injector, basic first aid questions and more.

Hands on instruction and Q&A with Tara Summers-Hermann, RN, BSN, author of Baby MEDBASICS and Toddler MEDBASICS and mom who saved her own child’s life.

Don’t miss this life saving, life changing event!

*MEDBASICS event to follow Children Story Time so bring your little ones!

MEDBASICS, Safety Workshop

Vivi is the youngest Hermann kid, who at 11 months is a little speed demon on all fours. Like every baby, she’s curious about everything and most of it ends up in her mouth. So while the holidays are magical and absolutely my favorite time of year, they do bring along some extra safety challenges to take into consideration. Here are a few tips…

• Make sure Christmas trees are in a secure stand and will hold up to a baby’s tug on a lower branch. Keep the glass and other breakable ornaments up high out of baby’s reach, and if you’re going to hang soft ornaments on the bottom, try and do so with string, not metal hooks. Clean up fallen needles often.

• All those lights mean extra wires! Inspect to make sure nothing is frayed, tape up the wire along walls so baby can’t wrap it around herself, and make sure unoccupied outlets are covered.

• Some of the beloved holiday plants are actually poisonous to people (and pets, so keep your eye on Fido too). Mistletoe, Jerusalem Cherry, holly berries, and amaryllis, while really pretty to look at, can have all sorts of unpleasant effects if ingested, and in some cases may cause death. The ubiquitous poinsettia, while not toxic, may cause a rash if the sap contacts the skin, and eating a few leaves could leave baby feeling sick.

• Remember, houseguests and visitors may inadvertently bring potential dangers along with them. Suitcases left on the ground may contain medicines and small objects baby can ingest, so make sure everyone in the house knows to keep these things out of baby’s reach.

So the holiday season doesn’t have to mean stress and panic for your sitter or yourself. With a little extra awareness and vigilance, you can have your fruitcake and eat it too!

Happy Holidays!

-Zoey, sitter to the Hermann kids

This winter, make sure you and everyone who cares for your child knows the ins and outs of coughs & colds.

* Don’t give cough and cold medications to children under 4 years old unless prescribed by your Pediatrician. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control), every year thousands of children under age 12 go to emergency rooms after taking over-the-counter cough and cold medicines. In response to safety concerns, the leading manufacturers of children’s cough and cold medicines are voluntarily changing the labels on these products to state that they should not be used in children younger than 4 years of age. Previously, the labels stated that these medicines should not be given to children under age 2. Products with the old labels will not be removed immediately from store shelves but are expected to gradually be replaced with products bearing the new labels.

*Don’t give your child two medications that contain the same ingredients. It’s not uncommon for cough, cold and allergy medications to share some of the same ingredients so make sure you read the labels and understand what you’re giving your child to avoid a potential overdose or reaction.

*Don’t leave any medications where your child might be able to reach them. This goes for visitors too- ask house guests to keep medication out of the reach of children.

*Don’t give honey to children younger than 1 because of the risk of botulism. Honey can be used to treat a cough in children 2 years and older.

*Saline drops or spray can help with stuffy noses.

*Popsicles or frozen Pedialyte Pops can help with dehydration and sore throats.

*Consult with your Pediatrician regarding diagnosis and treatment of cough and cold.

*When to Call 911
-if your child stops breathing or is struggling severely to breathe.
-if you infant is making grunting noises while trying to breathe.
-if nail bed, lips or mucous membranes turn blue or purple.

If you asked an Emergency Room doctor how they stay so calm, cool and collected during a medical emergency, what do you think they would say?

A. “I’ve spent my whole life preparing for this moment!”
B. “I’m not really a doctor but I play one on TV.”
C. “I simply know the critical questions to ask and the necessary actions I should take.”

Of course there is some truth in answer A and some entertainment value in answer B (love Grey’s Anatomy- seriously? seriously.) but the correct answer is C which is fantastic news for parents and caregivers because these critical questions and actions that allow the ER docs to remain calm, cool and collected can be learned by you.

For the first time ever at MomPrep, MEDBASICS is providing the “Think Like an ER Doctor” course. Led by an Emergency Room Physician and Registered Nurse, you will learn the critical questions you need to ask and the necessary actions you should take to help your child in a variety of medical emergencies including, Anaphylaxis, Dangerous Rashes, Extremely High Fever, Head Injuries, Life-threatening Poisonings and more!

Find out exactly when you should call 9-1-1, when to call your Pediatrician and when monitoring your child at home is enough. Understand what ER doctors really want to know from parents and discover the insider’s secrets to traversing the Emergency Room as painlessly as possible. Parents and caregivers should not miss this demystifying and empowering course.

Each participant will receive a MEDBASICS Critical Q&A (Questions & Actions) Pathway for each emergency discussed. We recommend taking this information wherever your child goes.

Ok, it’s you & a baby… maybe yours, maybe your niece, maybe a baby on the street. You notice this baby is choking, not breathing. What is your reaction? Panic? Frozen with fear? Hysterical? You try to call

MEDBASICS’ workshops are EMPOWERING, enabling parents & caregivers to CONFIDENTLY be an active, crucial part of their child’s first response team.

At MEDBASICS, we understand that taking action can not stop at calling 911 and that part of loving your child is knowing what to do & how to help when they need you most.
* Ask about our Nanny Discount!

- Find out how to prepare for emergencies even when you’re traveling.

- Get the inside scoop for navigating the Emergency Room.

- Led by an ER Doctor & RN.

-Only $99 per person which includes a complementary baby MEDBASICS home pack ($35 value) Workshop is 2+ hours with lots of hands on practice time.

- We come to you! Gather 5 or more of your friends & family, order a pizza, open a bottle of wine or soda & let’s get started!
(minimum 5 people per class)

“Every mom has nightmares about her mind going blank as her child chokes on a Cheerio. Baby MEDBASICS is a way to stop the anxiety.”
-Cookie Magazine
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Schedule Now, Fall Workshops are filling fast!
e: tara@babymedbasics.com
p: 917-353-1932

Being a sitter often means you’re responsible for feeding your charges. If you don’t have kids yourself, and you’re NOT a medical professional like the people you babysit for (um, that would be me), then you might not know about all of the potential dangers hidden in the kitchen pantry. The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates at least one child in the United States dies every five days from choking on food. The academy rates choking as the leading cause of death among children 14 and younger (keep in mind for every choking-related death, there are more than 100 visits to U.S. emergency departments for choking episodes). How’s that for scary statistics? It’s facts like these that have me cutting up Oliver’s grapes into sixteenths. (Kidding, kind of.) Now I know the top food choking hazards for kids, and it’s a good idea to make sure your sitter does too.

• Hot dogs (especially cut into a coin shape), meats, sausages, and fish with bones
• Popcorn, chips, pretzel nuggets, and snack foods
• Candy (especially hard or sticky candy), cough drops, gum, lollipops, marshmallows, caramels, hard candies, and jelly beans
• Whole grapes, raw vegetables, raw peas, fruits, fruits with skins, seeds, carrots, celery, and cherries
• Raisins, dried fruits, sunflower seeds, all nuts, including peanuts
• Peanut butter, especially in spoonfuls or soft white bread
• Ice cubes and cheese cubes
• Foods that clump, are sticky or slippery, or dry and hard textured
• Food size and shape, especially round or a shape that could conform to the shape and size of the trachea (windpipe). A small child’s trachea is approximately 1.25 inches in diameter.

Does this mean that you can never give your toddler a raisin again? Of course not, but use common sense and a lot of caution. Meal and snack-times should be calm, seated, and relaxing, not rushed and on-the-go. Make sure to supervise children when eating, and cut up food into small pieces. Remember, even if you know this already, don’t assume your sitter does! Reminders never hurt.

~Zoey, sitter to Nicholas, Oliver, and Vivienne

P.S., Check out this article from CNN Health…

Labels urged for foods that can choke kids

As a sitter, one of the perks of the job is sometimes getting to travel along with the family on their vacations! I’ve done it a few times, and have picked up a few tips from experience that just might make your next vacation a little less stressful and a lot safer!

1. As always, make sure everyone is wearing her seat belt (and in an approved and properly installed child safety seat, if required) in cars at all times.

2. If your little one gets motion sickness in a car or on a plane, it’s a good idea to bring an extra set of clothes, lots of wipes (useful any time, really) and have a plastic bag at the ready. (Just make sure the bag is kept away from babies at other times!)

3. On a plane, have a bottle ready and a pacifier on hand for when the pressure in the cabin becomes uncomfortable for baby. Sucking will help their ears pop, thus helping the Eustachian tube equalize the pressure on either side of the eardrum. Older kids can enjoy snacks–anything that they can chew and swallow. Yawning also helps.

4. If the kids aren’t vomiting, they’ll probably be whining. I like to play ‘I Spy’ with Oliver. Older kids can play the spelling version: “I spy with my little eye something beginning with the letter “G”, and younger ones can guess by color: “I spy with my little eye something blue.” Cell phones can also provide hours of entertainment, even without apps. Oliver loves flipping my cell open and pushing random numbers.

5. Most importantly, the same rules that apply at home should apply on vacation too. Always make sure kids are supervised near any bodies of water, and keep the lines of communication open between parents and sitter. On a vacation, in a different location, it’s easy to lose track of who’s in charge of whom. So double check! Is Oliver with his mother in the back yard or should I be watching him? Who’s got the baby? Sometimes it’s easy to assume that just because there are several adults on the premises that the kids are automatically being supervised, but that’s not necessarily so. Decide–verbally–who’s in charge, so that there’s no confusion. It’s not a bad idea to use a clock to designate shifts. Mom and Dad are watching the kids from 2 to 3, and then the sitter takes over until 6, for example. This way, you and your sitter can both relax and enjoy the vacation!

Hope these help!

Zoey, sitter to Nicholas, Oliver, and Vivienne