Basic First Aid
Watching your two-year-old walking unsteadily as she investigates everything at eye level in her surroundings, you are undoubtedly aware that a knowledge of basic first aid is essential to ensure your child's health.
Essential
You should always keep a fully stocked first-aid kit in your home and be familiar with basic first-aid techniques, such as when to apply pressure to wounds and how to stop bleeding; what to do in case of poisoning; how to clean and dress a wound; and how to recognize a cut that needs stitches.
Most injuries that befall a two-year-old are of the everyday variety: scrapes, bumps, and bruises. With a knowledge of basic first aid, you can care for your child's common injuries yourself. If you do have a true emergency on your hands, you can administer first-aid techniques at once to reduce a chance of greater problems.
If you head to the drugstore in search of children's Band Aids, you'll find products galore decorated with lots of TV and movie characters. But you might also discover what parents have learned over the years: Those child-sized bandages don't cover most children's cuts and scrapes. Just because children's bodies are small doesn't mean their injuries are. If available, buy both adult and child-sized Band-Aids so you can mix and match. The fun decorations will make your child happy, but the proper-sized bandage will enable you to take proper care of her.
You also need gauze, surgical tape, and antiseptic cream to apply to your child's cuts and scrapes. You should have tweezers on hand for splinters, scissors to cut bandages or gauze, if necessary, and safety pins to wrap cloth around injuries.
Besides antiseptic cream, you should have calamine lotion to stop itching, antibiotic cream to fight infection, and unscented moisturizer to put on your child's skin if it gets too dry. You should also have hydrocortisone cream on hand for itching and swelling.
