What is A Babysitter, Responsibilities, and How to Start Babysitting

Welcome and Opening Remarks

Hello everybody and welcome to this live event. I’m Marie Manning and I work in the Training services division of the Red Cross, and that's the division that's responsible for our first aid CPR/AED training, our aquatics training, our babysitting training, which we're going to be talking about today.

I wanna let you know that you can drop comments into the comment section of any of our feeds that you're joining us on. And we'll be able to answer them if it makes sense to answer any feedback that you have during the session, I will do that then. Or if it makes sense to hold it until the end, then we'll get to you at the end.

But welcome everybody here. I'm coming into you from New Jersey. Dr. Elizabeth Hewett Brumberg is coming into you from Pittsburgh. And Jill is coming into you from Nashville. Where are you all coming in from? Please let us know.

Babysitters Training Program Launch

This is a very fun special live for us because it coincides with the launch of our babysitters training program. And we're really excited to offer it and have it update. And we encourage you to check it out.

Our producer's gonna put a URL on the screen. And please take a minute to go look there and see what the new course is all about. But let's start this live.

Guest Introduction: Jill Hernandez

We have two guests today. First is Jill Hernandez. She's been with the Red Cross for 10 years. She specializes in both app development. She handles our apps, our First Aid app, our Pet First Aid app, our Swim app. And she also handles oversight of the babysitter's training course.

But what I'm really excited about and having Jill on here is the new Child Care app that she helped launch just a couple of weeks ago. She took it from concept to testing to posting in the App Store. And I also hope that you go on and take a look for the app when you can.

Our producer's going to put that URL on the screen and she'll also put it in the comments field so that you can, it's really neat. I've downloaded it on my phone and taken some of the quizzes and I've passed. Very excited about that.

Guest Introduction: Dr. Elizabeth Hewett Brumberg

All right, next you have on your screen Dr. Elizabeth Hewett Brumberg. She is the medical director of the emergency department Emergency Preparedness. She's a faculty physician in the division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

So she's also assistant professor of pediatrics for the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. And she's a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Children in Disasters. And she serves as the vice chair on the first aid sub council as part of the Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council.

The Scientific Advisory Council are the people, the science behind all of our Red Cross courses. So we're excited that she's taking time out from her schedule to be with us today. So thank you for being here and let's get on with the live then.

Babysitter Preparedness for Emergencies

My first question is for Dr. Elizabeth Hewett Brumberg, this, we're talking about babysitters today and you are an expert in emergencies. How can babysitters of any age be prepared for emergencies?

* Yeah, so I think the first part of preparedness is preparation. And so taking the babysitting course, learning first aid, practicing first aid and making sure that you're renewing your skills when they're up for renewal. I think all of that are really, all of that is really important.

And then also remembering to stay calm. I think being calm in a situation is one of the most important things 'cause your brain just does not work when it is frazzled.

And so we always joke like when you're going into an emergency, the first thing you do is check your own pulse and make sure that you have like sort of awareness of your own feelings and just be prepared to be really anxious when you have to respond to something. But remember, take a deep breath and everything will be better. Your training will kick in, and you can do it.

Basic First Aid Knowledge for Babysitters

Okay, good. I think that's so important to know. You know, check, make sure everything's safe, but then do a check in with yourself too and know that you've got this, you can handle this.

But you talked a little bit about the babysitter's course, you talked about first aid training. What kind of basic first aid knowledge should every babysitter have?

* Yeah, I think that's a good question. So I think common injuries, common things being common, I mean, bumps, scrapes, head bumps, those sorts of things. How to put a bandaid on, how to clean like a minor wound, those are really important things.

When to apply an ice pack. You know, simple things like identifying when a kid may need more medical care so, you know, they can't walk on their leg, their leg is probably broken, probably time to call their parents and take them somewhere.

You know, and then the other thing is just to have awareness about the medical conditions that the kids that you're caring for have. So if you were taking care of a child who has a peanut allergy, making sure that you know what the signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis are and making sure that somebody has shown you how to use that child's EpiPen because that is definitely a lifesaving maneuver that would need to be done quickly.

And then similarly, if you're babysitting a kid who has seizures, knowing what to do if a child has a seizure.

And then also making sure that you're not administering meds that parents don't want you to be administering and, you know, the ones that you only have the permission to do. But if parents say, "Hey, my kid's teething, can you give some ibuprofen before bedtime?" Kind of knowing how to use a syringe and administer that medication is also really important too.

Calling 911 and Emergency Communication

That's good, and I imagine it's also important and something that I believe we teach in our courses is to know how to call 911 and how to communicate with the dispatcher, yes?

* Yeah, yeah. That's also really important. And probably also something that needs to be practiced because in the setting of an emergency, it's hard to remember your address. And I mean, and if you're at the park, that's even harder to tell dispatchers where you might potentially be.

And so really thinking, and I think the Child Care app has some helpful spaces where you can put in things that would be helpful in an emergency to tell dispatchers.

Overview of the New Babysitters Training Course

Good, good. All right, so Jill, Dr. Elizabeth Hewett Brumberg talked about in a couple of areas that babysitters ought to be prepared for. Tell us now about the new babysitters training course that's newly launched. What specific skills and knowledge are babysitters going to take away from this course?

* Yeah, so some of the topics that we cover in the babysitter's training course are those, and like staying safe and in an emergency situations, what steps do you take? Like choking, bleeding, some common injuries as well, like you were talking about.

And also there's topics that really focus on childcare, like the skills, so like diapering, feeding, picking up and holding an infant or a child.

So there's some childcare topics. There's also a few things to help 'em get started in their business, so babysitting business tips and guidance there, communicating with the parents and filling out some forms that you can refer back to.

And also some like leadership, just you're the babysitter, you're there to lead the kids. And so different situations call for different leadership styles as well. So it's a good kind of combination of those of those topics.

Course Topic Selection and Scientific Review

So how did you decide on these topics?

* Yeah, so how we decided on these topics is really our first step, the process is to go to market research. What do parents, what do babysitters want to see in our course?

And what we've found on that is that really the core content that has existed is good content. It just really needs to be updated, and that's what we heard loud and clear.

So that's kind of our first step, is just go to market research. We love hearing from customers and what they think is going well and what we can improve on.

So that was our first step. And then really second, how do we determine these topics is once we've heard from that we go and take this list and go to the Scientific Advisory Council and see what do we need to include in there? What type of science needs to be there and how can we back that with solid scientific evidence there?

So that's kind of how we determine the topics.

Testing, Feedback, and Course Enhancements

Got it. Okay, all right. And then you did a lot of testing with both parents and children. And were there any surprises as that came out of that testing that you then incorporated into the course?

* Yeah, so what we really learned from that, just kind of elaborate on that research of what we learned, there were a couple of things that the parents and the babysitters both loved about the course and then some things that they wanted to see.

So I'll hit on a couple of things. They absolutely loved the physical copy of the participant handbook. That was one thing, hands down. Yes, we needed to have that physical copy.

They loved it because they can write in it, they can discuss it and use it in class, and then they can also take it home with them to refer back to anything that they wanted to either share with their parents that they learned or when it's time for a babysitting job to come, they can go back and refer to it and like, "Okay, let me see how do I diaper again? What were those steps?" And so they can refer back to that.

Another thing that we learned was that they wanted even more hands-on practice, so the skills that we're doing in class, diapering and feeding and picking up and holding children. And then choking and bleeding were all the ones that we've incorporated in there.

But not only that, but we've included more activities, more engaging activities and earlier on in the class so that it is really engaging throughout the course.

And then the last thing that I'll share too as a big highlight for me is that parents overwhelmingly said, "We want the option for our students to be able to be trained in CPR, and we want them to leave with a CPR certification."

So in our research and all of the testing and pilots that we've done, we are pleased to announce that we will have an option for students to register into a babysitting class that has pediatric first aid CPR and AED incorporated. It is an option.

Finding and Registering for the Course

Well, that's fantastic. So how will they know, like if they go to our website and they put in their city and a whole bunch of classes pops up? I know that one of the easy ways to narrow it down is for this particular class, it's all in person, right?

So you go to the little dropdown menu, you hit In Person, it comes up with a bunch of classes. But how do I know if I'm taking a class that has the CPR/AED component to it?

* Yeah, that's a really great question because once you get into the website, then what you are gonna look for for the new updated class is r.25, and that's just a reference to this year that has been updated this year.

There you'll see babysitter training, and then you'll see babysitter training r.25. So that's what you wanna look for is the r.25. That's the newest and most updated course that we have.

And then to your point, yes, selecting the classroom version is important to finding that in the search. And I would add that entering in your zip code is important to find the class in your area.

And in my example, I'm 28 miles from Nashville and downtown. And so whenever I search, it only pulls up 25 miles. So if you could go and just expand the mileage, it opens it up to like to 50 miles, there's 100 miles. You can kind of see what is in your area in general, and that might help you be able to find a class in your area just 'cause I'm three miles short. (chuckles)

* Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, I mean that's true. It helps to have a wider search range.

Keeping Children Calm During Emergencies

So I wanna go back a little bit, Dr. Elizabeth Hewett Brumberg, to what you talked about before on staying calm and composed during a medical emergency.

So you talked a little bit about the importance of the sitter and staying calm and composed. How do I keep one of the little kid that I'm working with, how do I keep them calm enough and so that they are doing okay and I can treat them?

* Yeah, every child's different and so I think based on the age and kind of their developmental stage, the answer's gonna be a little bit different.

But hopefully as the babysitter you know kind of what their likes and dislikes are, whether they will sit still to watch "Daniel Tiger" on your cell phone while you're trying to wash out a knee. Or they like to sing songs, or they're very motivated by treats. Like, "I'll give you a popsicle if you sit still, let me do this."

I think kind of whatever you have to do in this situation is fine and just sort of catering that.

I mean, a teenager you can, I mean, you probably aren't babysitting a teenager. But like an older, more mature like 10-year-old, you can probably say, "Sit still, I gotta do this." But a toddler may be more difficult and you may need to work harder to kind of redirect them towards cooperation.

Course Information and Prerequisites

Okay, okay. So let me pause here for a few minutes, just a minute to let you know that you can get information on this new course at redcross.org/babysitting, which is on your screen.

And then there's also a link. Earlier there were some links in the comments field about how you can get this course.

So Jill, let's get a little bit into the hows of this course. So you told us a few hints for signing up for this course, but are there any prerequisites or qualifications? I mean, how does that work?

* Yeah, and no, there are no prerequisites or qualifications that you need before registering and signing up for this class and taking it. I will note though that it is designed for 11 to 16 year olds.

* Okay, and is that have to do with the CPR part or the content? Is it all of the above?

* No, I think it is mostly just the childcare concepts is that kind of fits that youth range that we are targeting.

Course Materials and Digital Resources

Okay, okay. And then one thing I think I know about this course is that you have a book, so they get their workbook, but then they also get an ebook, right, that they can get after the course or before the course?

* Yes-

* Tell us a little bit about that.

* Yeah, there's some resources that are available during course and after the course as well.

So one of those that you mentioned that we've talked about is the participant handbook, the printed version of that. So that is a workbook style, and they can write in it, take it home, all of that. It's really fantastic. People love it. It's updated and it looks really, really great, so I'm pleased with that.

So there's a participant handbook that can use in class.

There's another option, there's an ebook. So essentially what that is is that it's the participant handbook but in a digital version.

So if they're providing a valid email address, then after the class, about a week or so, they will receive an email with instructions on how to use the ebook.

It is available on the web, so you can use computer, or it is also available in like our ebook mobile app. And so you can download that app, and then you can redeem the code that's sent to you in email and you can refer to that as well.

The ebook is really great too because you can have it digitally, you can highlight different sections, you can type comments in the ebook. You can bookmark a certain page that you wanna come back to. It's important, you wanna read it again.

And then there's also a really cool search feature. So if you've lost your place or you're like, "Oh, I don't remember where that was at," you just type in the word that you're looking for and then it'll go directly to those pages. It can help you find where you need to be.

Child Care App Overview

And then the other resource that's really after class is our free Child Care app.

And so I know we've mentioned that here, but this is really for anyone who is caring for children but it's really designed for the babysitter 'cause it supplements the curriculum and the content that you have in the babysitter's training course.

And in the app there's just really quick lessons that you can read through, and it follows up with a quiz. And with that quiz, once you successfully complete that, to your point, you would earn badges and you can collect achievements.

So it's really fun to like come back to whenever you have the opportunity to swipe through some lessons, take a quiz and earn a badge, and you can keep doing that over time and learn a lot about childcare.

And then there is a section that also was mentioned already about the records that you can keep on the children that, or families that are in your care.

So you can take type the name, important medical information, if the family has a pet, like what instructions there are to do with that or medications.

So there's a lot of important information that you can keep in the app.

And I do wanna say that it is secure, and we do not collect any information. It's stored locally in the device and so it's not sharing that information with us or anyone so it's not being collected.

And then the last thing I would say is to download it. We would absolutely love everyone on the call and just to share that information out because you can have this childcare information in your hand anywhere you go if you have a device.

So you can download that by texting CHILDCARE to 90999. And you can also go to the stores like it was mentioned Apple Store, Google Play Store and you can download that by searching Red Cross Child Care app.

Medical Emergency Scenarios for Babysitters

Oh, that is so neat.

* Yeah.

I encourage everybody to download the app. Our producer's gonna put that link up on the screen so that you can take a look at it, or you can click through in the chat.

Okay, this is my fun part. Dr. Elizabeth Hewett Brumberg, this is for you. I wanna do a round robin on medical emergencies a babysitter might face.

Okay, allergic reactions or asthma attacks, what do I do? I'm at home, something happens.

* Yeah, so asthma attack, it should be something that the parent has talked with you about and has shown you where the child's inhalers are.

Generally sort of the number one intervention for an asthma attack is to give like albuterol or bronchodilator medication, preferably with a spacer, which makes it easier to inhale into the lungs.

And so you would definitely wanna have that with you if you have a child who you know you gonna the park or whatever and they might have an asthma attack there.

Also kind of getting them into a calm place and a position of comfort, those are also really important parts of that.

And then for allergic reaction, it depends a little bit on how severe it is.

If you are concerned they're having difficulty breathing, their tongue and lips are swelling, they're vomiting a lot, if that is a child who, you know, has an allergy, you would definitely give them an EpiPen and you would call 911.

If it's more like they've got itchy, watery eyes and they've been outside, you could bring them inside and try to kinda, again, get them in seated at a position of comfort and probably text or call the parents and say, "Hey, is there some allergy medication around?"

Just there's something that you know about.

But more severe allergies, more severe asthma attacks that don't respond to bronchodilators, those are both reasons to call 911.

Choking Emergencies

Okay. All right. Before I ask you the next question, just wanna let folks know, you can put a comment in the comment section, we'll get those here. Any questions you have for either Jill or Dr. Elizabeth Hewett Brumberg.

Next up, child is choking, what do we do?

* Yeah, so depends a little bit on the size of the child.

If it's a baby or somebody who you can easily kind of fit in your arm and hand, you're gonna alternate back blows and chest thrust.

And if it is a older child you may need to kneel behind them in order to be able to do abdominal thrust, or what we classically call the Heimlich maneuver.

But you'll alternate back blows and abdominal thrust for older children until the object is dislodged or they lose consciousness.

And if they lose consciousness, then you would call 911 and start CPR.

Okay, the thing, though, it's really important to act quickly if there's choking.

* Yeah.

You wouldn't necessarily call 911 first, you wanna take action.

* Yeah, you would probably wanna take action first. Yes, you'd wanna take action first and then call 911 kind of if you're unsuccessful and you're starting CPR.

That being said though, if a child is choking and you have successfully dislodged the object, you should at least call the parents and see what they want you to do.

A lot of parents would still want those kids to be checked out in the emergency department.

Fever Management

Yeah, that makes sense. All right, let's talk about a child who has a high fever.

So you got there, maybe the child was sick already, the parents said they're sick. But then you notice flushing and sweating, and what do I do? High fever, take the temperature.

* Yeah, I mean, so fever in and of itself isn't dangerous.

So if you're sick and you have fever, your body is not gonna let you get hot enough to cook yourself.

Kids who have febrile seizures will have seizures regardless of how high the temperature is. It's a genetic predisposition.

And so high fever is not something to be afraid of.

It's like kids can very easily have fevers of 104 or 105 and end up totally fine.

The reason that we treat fever is because it makes kids feel terrible.

And so as long as it's okay with the parents and they've kind of set you up with it, giving appropriate like age and weight-based dosing of Tylenol or ibuprofen is very reasonable.

You can do like a lukewarm bath, you know, loose, like, cool clothes, popsicles, lots of liquids to drink, lots of supportive care.

But I think the most important thing is like, don't be totally freaked out by high fever because it's your body doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing, which is trying to kill off whatever it is that's making you sick.

Minor Injuries

Okay, that's good to know.

Last, I think you have covered a little bit of this when we talked about keeping a child calm, but minor injuries, the kid falls down on the playground, gets gravel, scraped knee or a tree branch snaps and they get a scratch on their arm, what do I do?

* Yeah, I think importantly it's good to reassure the child that they're okay, to validate that it hurts, but "You're okay, you're safe."

Making sure that you're washing it out really well.

If you can take a look and just make sure there isn't like debris in it, like there's not a piece of a little branch or dirt or whatever in it.

And then putting a little antibiotic ointment and an emotional support bandaid on it and kind of moving on.

You know, lots of kids, like when something like that has happened are not interested in continuing to do the activity that caused them to be hurt.

And so kind of being willing to roll with it, "Oh, that's okay, you don't wanna play at the park anymore, we'll go home. There's lots of fun stuff to do at home."

And so just I think the reassurance that they're safe, a little bit of minor wound care and then being able to sort of redirect and distract from the injury.

Yes, I love what one of our viewers said, they said, "Food," that's all I wrote, which reminds me of what you had said earlier. You know, give them a popsicle or something to distract them and get your thing done.

* Yeah, there's not much a popsicle can fix, honestly.

* (chuckles) Yeah that is true.

Course Materials Recap

All right, we've talked a lot, Jill, with you on the workbooks and the app and the ebook.

Those all sound like great options and those are all, correct me if I'm wrong, but they're all available in the course, yes?

* Yes, they're available.

You take the course and you can get all three of them.

And they're also all available. Well, the workbook, the participant manual is available on the Red Cross store, which is www.redcrossstore.org.

Additional Safety Topic: Button Batteries

All right, so this is really good stuff, and we've covered a lot.

And before we take questions from the audience, we have a couple.

I wanna ask a question I guess as moderator, it's my prerogative.

Dr. Elizabeth Hewett Brumberg, I have heard talk that button batteries are something you really need to watch out for with kids. Tell me about that, 'cause I think you have a little expertise in this area.

* Yeah, button batteries are terrible. (chuckles)

So they're commonly found, if anybody is wondering, we're look talking about like the little like round coin size batteries. They are found in so many household items and lots of toys.

And in toys they're required to be like screwed in so you need a screwdriver to get them out.

But in other household things like bathroom scales and that sort of stuff, here's not that same requirement.

The problem with them is when they get stuck between two pieces of tissue, so if they get stuck in the esophagus, which is the tube that takes food from the mouth down to the stomach, they can actually start to burn through that tissue.

And there are a lot of really important structures close to that food tube in your chest.

And so they can erode really very quickly into other really important, and other really important structures and cause a lot of morbidity and mortality as a result of that.

And so until we can get battery manufacturers to make them, you know, to change packaging and make them taste bad and all that stuff, we just have to be really aware of them and the risk.

And so really the mainstay of treatment for that is early and quick removal at a center that provides, like, pediatric endoscopic services.

But the other thing that's been shown to be helpful in kids older than one, because you can't give honey to kids who are less than one, is honey.

As long as the child's awake and alert, you can have them swallow honey to try to coat that button battery and help slow the rate of kind of the tissue being burned.

But yeah, really dangerous.

And yeah, every parent and pediatric emergency medicine physician's worst nightmare.

Audience Questions

Oof, so yes, babysitters, future babysitters, current babysitters, keep an eye on kids, especially around some of these adult things that they might be able to get into.

* Yeah, for sure.

All right, let's a couple questions from our audience.

It looks like I have one for Jill.

Jill, I have one for you.

Does the curriculum, and it may or may not, but does the curriculum cover kids that may have special needs such as autism?

* Yes, there is a section in our content that does cover special needs.

And I would also just, kind of to elaborate on that a little bit, is that we do have a parent interview form.

And so when a babysitter is talking with a parent, that's usually something that they do discuss before the babysitting job and see what type of accommodations or what type of play, or how to really do a great job in babysitting the child with a special need.

Emergency Consent and Hospital Care

Good. Okay, that's good.

And then Dr. Elizabeth Hewett Brumberg for you.

Okay, I've called 911, but now I'm unable to contact the parents. How does the emergency department handle something like that?

* Yeah, so in an emergency for a minor, consent is implied.

And so we always try to get in touch with the parents and wouldn't do anything that wasn't emergent without the parent's consent.

But any emergency care that a child may require would be provided without parental consent if we were unable to get in touch with the parents.

Good. Okay. Well, that's, I'm sure, a relief to the person who asked that question.

Because the last thing you wanna do is show up somewhere and not be able to treat.

* Yeah.

Closing Remarks

All right, well, I think that ends our time today.

We've hit that mark, and I really wanna thank both of you.

Even though I've been working on the babysitters training program for many months now, Jill, I always learn something new and appreciate your walking us through all of the different resources that are available and how to find the course.

And Dr. Elizabeth Hewett Brumberg, thank you for your wealth of knowledge about childcare emergencies and how we want to handle them.

So if you want more, viewers, if you want more great content like this, please subscribe to one of our feeds: LinkedIn, Facebook, or the Red Cross does have a YouTube channel that you can join, and you'll see these.

We usually do them about once a month.

And that's all we have for today.

I appreciate your joining us, everybody who joined as a participant and then also our two speakers today.

Thank you and have a great afternoon.