I went for a baby check up last week with my little one and I was handed a consent form for an online immunization registry from the receptionist. I signed it without discussing it with my husband because I thought having the record would be a good thing, since I plan on giving her most of the shots according to a modified schedule. When I spoke to my husband he felt that her medical records should not be online because insurance company could always use it against her. His argument made me extremely worried about my decision.

If you haven’t been to the pediatrician’s office in a couple months your doctor’s receptionist might hand you a consent form on your next doctor’s appointment. Visit CAIR to learn more, so you can accept or reject that form without feeling pressured to make a decision right away.

In my on going concern of protecting my bean from all possible harm, I realized that even with all my planning and provisioning, I would not be able to cover every inevitable harmful scenario. The result of this mental exercise, I need to learn infant CPR.

RED CROSS

I start my search with The American Red Cross. The American Red Cross offers an online course

Child/Infant CPR

Time allowed for course: 14 days

This web-based course teaches American Red Cross CPR for children (ages 1-12) and infants (under age 1). Students will learn how to recognize and respond to breathing and cardiac emergencies. This course may take up to 3 hours. To earn CPR certification, students must pass the online test and then attend a skill session to perform and review skills.

CPR certification is valid for 1 year.

Course fee: $40.00 USD

They also offer standard courses

CPR Training Course

This 4 hour course provides individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to recognize and provide basic care for breathing and cardiac emergencies for adults.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain the three emergency action steps to follow in an emergency.CPR Class
• Learn the four life-threatening conditions for which you should check
• Recognize the signals of a heart attack.
• Learn the cardiac chain of survival for a victim of cardiac arrest.
• Learn the precautions for using and AED.
• Demonstrate how to use basic precautions when caring for victims of breathing and cardiac emergencies.
• Demonstrate how to check an unconscious adult.
• Demonstrate how to care for a conscious and an unconscious choking adult.
• Demonstrate how to give CPR to an adult.
• Demonstrate how to use an AED for an adult in cardiac arrest.

Length: Approximately 4 hours

Certificate Validity: 1 year

If you would like to schedule CPR training for a group of people of 10 or more at your site, please call (310) 445-2688 or see more information at Workplace Safety

If you need to take a CPR class for yourself, American Red Cross has community classes available. Please call 1-800-627-7000 to get course schedules and to register.

Here’s a map of all the Red Cross locations:

Okay, I lied, those locations above are not all. There is a Santa Monica Red Cross office as well. They offer CPR classes for free. Here is a list of their offerings:

32411: Adult CPR with AED

32410: Adult CPR with First Aid

32407: Adult, Infant, & Child CPR with First Aid

32415: Adult/AED, Infant, & Child CPR

32800: CPR for the Professional Rescuer

First Aid

3210: Infant & Child CPR

32302: Infant and Child CPR with First Aid

Waterpark Lifeguarding Instructor

YMCA

The Los Angeles YMCA offers a ton of courses in a variety of subjects. They also offer a variety of CPR classes. My local YMCA, the Westside Family YMCA offers the following courses:

Community CPR with AED and First-Aid Classes

Sign up and be CPR and First-Aid certified, for you never know when the world might call upon you to be a hero! CPR and First-Aid Certification classes are offered on the following Saturdays from 10:00am – 2:00pm: March 28, 2009 May 30, 2009 June 27, 2009 July 25, 2009 August 29, 2009 September 19, 2009 CPR w/ AED & First Aid Class Fees Facility Members: $55.00 General Public: $70.00

In addition, the Santa Monica CPR Training Center also looks like a great resource.

They offer the following:

We offer the following CPR classes:

BLS for Healthcare Providers       $60.00

Heartsaver AED (includes CPR) $55.00

Heartsaver CPR                          $50.00

Family and Friends CPR               $40.00

BLS Skills Test (call for appointment) $65.00

Please call about First Aid classes.

I also found some other online resources:

The University of Washington has some online help, illustrations of proper application of infant CPR and a video.

UCLA also offers some CPR courses, however I didn’t see anything specific on Infant CPR.

onlinebabycpr.com also offers a free course

In case anyone is interested, I have spent some time spreading out my little bean’s vaccination schedule.  To create my vaccination schedule, I used the following lists. 1. Standard vaccine schedule, 2. The Vaccine Book, 3. Vaccine schedule followed by 10th Street Pediatrics in Santa Monica, and 4. Vaccine schedule followed by UCLA Pediatrics group in Santa Monica. I decided to vaccinate her fully, except for Rota vaccine. This is because I don’t plan on sending my little bean to daycare any time soon. If anyone wants a pdf version of the list, please email me.

. Little Bean Alternative UCLA 10th Street Selective Recommended . Birth Hep B Hep B . 1 month Hep B . 2 months DTaP DTaP, Rota Hep B, Pc(Prevnar), DTaP+Polio+HIB(Pentacel), Rota DTaP, HIB(ActHIB), Pc(Prevnar) DTaP, Rota HIB, Pc, DTaP, Rota, Polio . 3 months Pc(Prevnar) HIB, Pc HIB, Pc . 4 months Pentacel DTaP, Rota Pc(Prevnar), DTaP+Polio+HIB(Pentacel), Rota DTaP, HIB(ActHIB), Pc(Prevnar) DTaP, Rota HIB, Pc, DTaP, Rota, Polio . 5 months Pc(Prevnar) HIB, Pc HIB, Pc . 6 months Pentacel DTaP, Rota Hep B, Pc(Prevnar), DTaP+Polio+HIB(Pentacel), Rota DTaP, HIB(ActHIB), Pc(Prevnar), Polio(IPV) DTaP, Rota HIB, Pc, DTaP, Rota, Hep B, Flu . 7 months Pc(Prevnar) HIB, Pc HIB, Pc . 8 months . 9 months HIB, PPD Polio, Flu (2 doses) PPD (Tuberculosis) Polio(IPV), Tuberculosis(PPD test), Hemoglobin test . 10 months . 11 months . 12 months Pc(Prevnar) Mumps, Polio MMR, Pc(Prevnar) MMR, HIB(ActHIB) MMR, Chickenpox, Hep A . 13 months . 14 months . 15 months VZV HIB, Pc Chickenpox (VZV), DTaP Chickenpox (Varivax), Pc(Prevnar) HIB, Pc HIB, Pc . 18 months Pentacel DTaP, Chckenpox Hep A DTaP, Polio(IPV) DTaP, Polio, MMR, Flu, Chickenpox . 21 months Flu . 2 years Rubella, Polio Hep A

. 2 years 6 months Hep A Hep B, Hep A Hep A . 3 years Hep B, Measles, Flu . 3 years 6 months Hep A Hep B, Hep A Hep A . 4 years MMR – waiting until either 4 years of age or enters school, whichever comes first. The reason for the 4-year: 1. Many kids don’t enter school until age 4, and 2. Most states only require one dose of mumps and rubella if that one dose is given at age 4 or older DTaP, Polio, Flu DTaP, IPV, MMR, VZV, PPD . 5 years MMR, Flu Tetanus booster . 6 years Chickenpox . 10 years Blood test for MMR. 3 dose Polio . 11 years Tdap, Meningococcal(Menactra), HPV(3 doses – 2 and 6 months after first dose) HPV ( 3 doses) . 12 years HPV Tdap, HPV Tdap, Meningococcal, HPV (3 doses) . 12 years 2 months HPV and Hep B?? HPV Hep B (3 doses) . 13 years HPV, Meningococcal HPV, Meningococcal . . .