Looking after a baby or child: find the right page

Something is happening right now

These are the site’s first-aid pages. They are not only about children.

• When someone is choking→Someone can’t breathe, cough or speak, a baby is choking, or they are coughing hard but still breathing. Keeps nothing.
• When it might be a poisoning→A child got into the pills or the cleaner, a double dose or the wrong medicine, two products mixed, something in an eye, a swallowed button battery, a snake bite, bad food. Keeps nothing.
• When someone is burned→A hand on the stove, a spilled coffee, a child in a hot bath, a cleaner on the skin, a shock from a cord, clothes that caught fire, a bad sunburn. Keeps nothing.
• When it might be a severe allergic reaction→A tight throat, a swollen tongue, hives all over or trouble breathing after a food, a sting or a medicine, yours or someone else’s; a first reaction; epinephrine you are afraid to use, or can’t afford; or a child with a serious allergy. Keeps nothing.
• When someone has a seizure→Someone near you is having a seizure, you had one for the first time or think you did, you live with epilepsy, or it is your child. Keeps nothing.
• After a hit to the head→You hit your head, or you haven’t felt right since a blow, a fall, a crash or a fight; it is your child; or it happened years ago and nobody ever looked at it. Keeps nothing.
• When someone is in trouble in the water→Someone struggling in the water right now, a person just pulled out, or getting ready before a day at the pool, the beach, the lake or the bath. Keeps nothing.
• When it’s hard to breathe→An asthma attack, yours or someone else’s; an inhaler that isn’t lasting, or that you can’t afford; you or your child have just been told it is asthma; or something at home, in the air or at work sets it off. Keeps nothing.
• First aid: what do you see?→One page to find the right first-aid page fast. Keeps nothing.

Fever, coughs, tummy, ears and wet beds

• Fever in a baby or child: when to call, and what helps→For anyone looking after a baby or child with a fever, at any hour. Keeps nothing.
• Cough or cold in a baby or child: what helps, the medicine ages, and when to call→For anyone looking after a baby or child with a cough or a cold. Keeps nothing.
• Vomiting and diarrhea in a baby or child: fluids, and when to call→For anyone looking after a baby or child who is throwing up or has diarrhea, at any hour. Keeps nothing.
• Constipation in a baby or child: what helps, and when to call→For anyone looking after a baby or child who may be constipated. Keeps nothing.
• Ear infection in a baby or child: what helps, and when to call→For anyone looking after a baby or child whose ear hurts. Keeps nothing.
• Bedwetting: what helps, what doesn’t, and when to call→For anyone looking after a child who wets the bed. Keeps nothing.

The first year with a baby

• Crying baby: when the crying won’t stop→For anyone looking after a baby who will not stop crying, at any hour, and for the people beside them. Keeps nothing.
• Breastfeeding: when it hurts, or you’re not sure it’s working→For anyone who is breastfeeding or trying to, in the first days or months in, and for the people beside them. Keeps nothing.
• Baby log: feeds, diapers, sleep and crying, kept on your own device→For the first weeks with a baby, when nobody remembers at three in the morning when the last feed was, and the doctor asks how many wet diapers there were. What you type is kept only in this browser.
• Pregnant, or with a new baby→Pregnant, or home with a baby under one, anywhere in the US, and for the people beside you. Keeps nothing.
• Postpartum depression: when the baby blues don’t lift→For anyone who is pregnant or had a baby in the last year and does not feel like themselves, and for the people who love them. Keeps nothing.

At school

• Help at school for your child→Your child is struggling at school, or learns, moves, speaks or behaves differently. Keeps nothing.
• Letters to your child’s school→Five short letters from a parent or guardian, with blanks to fill in. Keeps nothing.
• When it’s bullying→For a young person who is being bullied, a parent who thinks their child is, someone who saw it happen, and the family of a child who is doing it. Keeps nothing.

Child care, custody and keeping a child safe

• If a child is being hurt→Worried about a child, just told something by one, a kid or teen who is being hurt, a parent afraid of what you might do, or an adult it happened to long ago. Keeps nothing.
• When you need child care→For any parent or guardian who needs child care and can’t find a place, can’t pay for one, or isn’t sure a place is safe. Keeps nothing.
• When you’re raising a relative’s child→For grandparents, aunts, uncles, older brothers and sisters and close family friends raising a child whose parents cannot (kinship care). Keeps nothing.
• When it’s about child support→For either side of a child support order. Keeps nothing.

Before you call or go in

These three are for anyone’s appointment or call. They were not made only for children.

• Symptom diary: write it down, show your doctor→Write down what you notice when it happens, with your own number from 0 to 10. What you type is kept only in this browser.
• Get ready for your appointment→Ten minutes before you go: what has been happening, your medicines, your questions and what helps you, on one page to hand to your doctor, therapist or psychiatrist, with room to write down the plan. What you type is kept only in this browser.
• Call script: know what you will say before you dial→A phone call you keep putting off? Write who you are calling, the sentence that says what you want, what to have ready and what to ask. What you type is kept only in this browser.