Child Care First Aid

Emergency Child Care First Aid is designed for the early childhood education industry, and for parents and caregivers. The room is usually:

• Daycare workers and early childhood educators renewing Red Cross certification
• Camp staff and early childhood education assistants with school aged children
• Nannies and parents who want the same first aid skills at home

Emergency Child Care First Aid covers fourteen topics in eight hours, ending with Caring for Children. The running order is the Red Cross, responding and preparing to respond, the EMS system, Check, Call, Care, airway emergencies, breathing and circulation emergencies, cardiac arrest for babies and children, wound care, head and spinal injuries, bone, muscle and joint injuries, poisons, sudden medical emergencies and environmental emergencies. Every Red Cross responding sequence on that list is practised, not just read.

No — there is no blended training option for either level, and no online portion of the training. Each is a classroom Level B course, so your skills evaluation happens in the room with an instructor. Our first aid course, CPR course and BLS class pages publish blended routes if that is what you need.

You practise the first aid skills a child care setting calls for — first aid and CPR on child and infant manikins, with an AED trainer. A first aid instructor works the room while you do:

• The EMS system, Check, Call, Care — the critical steps, through real life examples
• Circulation emergencies and choking, at Level B
• First aid care for head and spinal injuries, bone, muscle and joint injuries
• Injury prevention skills

Instructors are what our reviews mention most. Students have called ours a “Great instructor”, “a really good teacher” and an “Incredible instructor”. Those are their words. Ours, in reply, was that Ali is an amazing instructor.

Emergency Child Care First Aid is 8 hours of teaching time over one day, and Standard Child Care First Aid is 16 hours over two days. Both cover first aid and CPR for childhood injuries, from circulation emergencies to sudden medical emergencies. The longer course adds childhood illnesses.

Standard Child Care First Aid covers everything in the Emergency course plus one extra topic, Childhood Illnesses, and spends twice as long doing it. The practical differences:

• Emergency Child Care First Aid is 14 topics in 8 hours; Standard is 15 in 16
• Each is a Level B course leading to three-year Red Cross certification
• The extra day buys childhood illnesses and sudden medical emergencies in depth

Each level is a Level B course, which covers child and infant resuscitation. CPR Level C adds adults, and CPR Level A is adults only. Need adults too? Book a CPR class from our CPR and AED courses page, where every CPR course and CPR class is listed. A CPR course on its own does not satisfy Ontario Regulation 1101 — that takes a first aid certification.

You need 100% attendance and a score of 75% on the multiple choice knowledge test, at either level. You work the first aid skills with an instructor, and the free 90-day skills practice retake is where people build confidence and start to feel confident unsupervised.

Red Cross certification in Emergency Child Care First Aid is valid for three years from the date you pass, and so is the two day course. It is issued within 48 hours. To renew, see our recertification courses.

The Canadian Red Cross Child Care First Aid certificate is WSIB approved, Occupational Health & Safety compliant and valid three years. Your workplace first aid requirement is a separate question. Ontario Regulation 1101 sets it by the number of workers on a shift: section 8 covers five or fewer and is met by Basic/Emergency First Aid, and section 9 covers six to fifteen and needs Intermediate/Standard First Aid, as do the larger workplaces under sections 10 and 11. Whichever band you fall in, the certificate has to come from a course with a hands-on skills test — online study on its own does not produce one that satisfies Regulation 1101. Book Intermediate/Standard First Aid — the majority of workplaces require it — and see our WSIB compliance page for the kit, posting and first aid room duties that scale with headcount.

Yes — Intermediate First Aid and Standard First Aid are two names for one course. The Canadian Red Cross changed the wording, so older certificates read Standard and newer ones read Intermediate. Neither is the two day child care first aid course. See our first aid course page.

Yes — we run private Emergency Child Care First Aid for groups of eight or more, on a date and at a location you choose. It is not an open public class; private Emergency Child Care First Aid is scheduled for your group. Call 1-866-291-9121 or see private and group training.