Classes training ‘Super Sitters’ to prep for child care emergencies | News, Sports, Jobs

OGDEN — So far, Sunday Hansen hasn’t had to perform CPR on any of the kids she babysits. But if something ever goes wrong, she’s trained to jump in and administer the lifesaving skill.

The 11 year-old Mountain Green resident recently took a babysitting course at McKay-Dee Hospital entitled Super Sitter Safety Class. The 90-minute class is offered to kids at several other Intermountain Health hospitals as well, including Utah Valley Hospital, Layton Hospital, Logan Regional, Primary Children’s Hospital and Riverton Hospital.

In addition to traditional babysitting training, the Super Sitter Safety Class also teaches kids hands-on lifesaving skills such as CPR, wound care and the Heimlich maneuver.

“If you want to start babysitting, I would think you would want to go to a class so you can learn all of the tips,” Sunday said. “I think the most important thing is probably learning CPR in case anything goes wrong, but they give you a whole bunch of ideas like how to entertain the kids and how to swaddle a baby and change their diaper.”

Natalie Godfrey, community educator for Intermountain at McKay-Dee Hospital, said mannequins are used during the course to aid in emergency training of both children and infants. Participants are also taught how to calm a crying baby, how to feed, clothe, burp and change a baby’s diaper, what items to bring with them when they babysit and how to plan fun games and activities.

“The course is a step above a traditional babysitting class,” Godfrey said. “They learn a lot more about safety and what to do in an emergency while they’re waiting for help to arrive. And when they have that additional training, I think parents feel more comfortable having them watch their children.”

Godfrey said because babysitters are typically children themselves, the course teaches them how they can stay safe as well.

“So, things like who can they open the door to, do they have a list of phone numbers they need, are they allowed to walk home or accept a ride home, what to do in case they get sick or injured,” she said.

Sunday’s mother, Kara Hansen, is a community education coordinator who teaches community CPR courses at McKay-Dee Hospital. Prior to that position, she taught the Super Sitter Class.

“It’s a really great course for these kids. It used to be called a babysitting class, but we added a lot more safety training to the course, so now it’s Super Sitters,” she said. “We have narrowed the class down to 90 minutes so the kids wouldn’t get bored or uninterested. We wanted to keep their attention and be able to walk away with the most important information.”

Kara Hansen said every child receives a booklet when the course is completed. The booklet contains all of the skills they were taught.

“We encourage the kids to take those booklets with them when they babysit so they have all of that good information with them,” she said.

Sunday Hansen said she loves to babysit and has become an even better babysitter because of the class.

“I learned a lot of things I didn’t think about, like asking the parents if their child is allergic to any foods or medicines and what to give them if they aren’t feeling good,” she said. “The booklet they give you in the class also has a lot of really fun ideas for games and activities. I tend maybe twice a month and I love it. I love playing with the kids and taking care of the babies.”

To see a schedule of classes, visit https://bit.ly/46Eo02a.

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