Chapter 12: Little Ones

Lily: "Little hands, hold tight. Big Rangers keep them safe!"

Many Rangers help with babies and little brothers and sisters. That's a big, kind job. Rangers are helpers. A grown-up is always in charge of a baby.

What Rangers know

• Clean hands first. Wash with soap before you touch a baby, their food or their cup, and after nappies.
• Water is a grown-up place. Little ones can drown in just a little water: buckets, basins, wells, ditches, puddles and rivers. Keep buckets covered or empty, and never leave a little one alone near water, even for a moment. Tell a grown-up about an uncovered well or deep hole.
• Hold hands near roads, trucks, crowds, water and fires.
• Fire and hot things: keep little ones far from stoves, pots, hot drinks and candles.
• Small things are choking things: coins, beads, bottle caps, batteries, nuts. Keep them up high.
• Never give a little one medicine, chemicals or bleach, and keep fuel and cleaning bottles out of reach.
• Baby sleep: babies sleep on their backs, on a flat, firm place, with no pillows or loose blankets over their face. A grown-up decides where.
• Keep babies warm (a hat and skin-to-skin with mum), but not too hot.
• Play and talk. Sing, make faces, tell stories. Little ones learn from you.
• Tell a grown-up fast if a baby or little one:
• won't feed or drink
• is very sleepy or floppy
• has fast or hard breathing
• has a fever, lots of watery poo or vomiting
• has a fit
• is cold to the touch

Older Rangers (12+)

• Help a grown-up carry and settle babies, using both arms and supporting the head.
• Make sure babies' cups and bowls are washed with safe water.
• Know where the health tent is and how to describe a baby's danger signs.

Ranger checklist

• ☐ I wash my hands before touching a baby.
• ☐ I never leave a little one alone near water, even a bucket.
• ☐ I hold little hands near roads and fire.
• ☐ I keep small things and bottles out of reach.
• ☐ I know babies sleep on their backs, on a flat place.
• ☐ I can name three baby danger signs and I tell fast.

Earn your badge (Little Ones Helper 👶, new area)

Watch and learn

• Planned: Helping With Baby
• Planned: Hungry Signs and the Feeding Tent
• Planned: Tummy Trouble
• Handbook Chapter 2 (danger signs) and Chapter 13 (first aid)