Safe Sitter Class Offers Life-Saving Knowledge

Bailee Davis won’t soon forget Valentine’s Day 2009. The 16-year-old Summerville High School student was babysitting for some parents on her street who were enjoying an evening out. Davis and her younger sister were staying with two little boys and an 18-month-old toddler. The children were watching a movie, and the boys were eating popcorn.

Davis noticed a piece of popcorn had landed on the floor near the little girl. Before Davis could get to it, the child put the popcorn in her mouth. The normally lively child was suddenly very quiet and grabbing at her face.

“I tried to see if there was anything in her mouth. She wasn’t making any noise and that really concerned me,” Davis said. “I yelled to my sister to get help.”

Because the child was over a year old, Davis began to administer the Heimlich maneuver. But the little girl was small for her age and Davis switched to the infant version of the Heimlich in which you place the child over your lap. Davis’ fast thinking worked and the baby started crying just as a neighbor came in to help.

“I love this little girl,” Davis said. “I babysit her and her older brothers all the time.”

But Davis was more upset than the child – she got on the floor and started playing as if nothing happened. “I was the one who was distraught. I stepped outside to call my mom.”

Even though she may have been shaky after the incident, Davis remained calm during the incident and saved a child’s life thanks to a Safe Sitter Class she’d taken four years earlier.

Trident Health System offers several Safe Sitter classes each year, instructing youth ages 11 to 15 on everything a babysitter might need to know, including first aid, choking rescue techniques, sitter safety as well as the business aspects of working as a babysitter.

Without the class, that Valentine’s Day evening could have ended in tragedy.

“I wouldn’t have known what to do at all,” Davis said. “I would have had to call 9-1-1 and by then, it might have been too late.”

Davis also attributes keeping a level head to what she learned in the Safe Sitter Class. “It taught me not to panic. There’s plenty of time to panic afterward. You have to put the child before yourself and your fears. You are responsible for their life. That’s what the class taught me.”

Jeanne Lyer has been teaching the Safe Sitter Class at Trident for three years. She said the motto of the course is “Better sitters today, better parents tomorrow.” The skills the students in the class learn can follow them not only through babysitting jobs but as they someday care for their own children.

The students receive a packet of information that reiterates all they learned in the course and it gives them something to refer back to – exactly what Davis has done since she took the class.

The students in the course learn a variety of skills, including what to charge or when to charge for sitting additional children.

“It gives them some confidence in themselves and some parents have told me after their child has taken the course, they seemed more confident about things,” said Lyer, who retired as director of the skilled nursing unit at Summerville Medical Center.

Davis’ own experience with Safe Sitter Class and its life-saving results made her realize sitters aren’t just on the job to make money.

“Parents are putting a lot of trust in you,” she said. “If you’re a mother’s helper or a babysitter I think it (Safe Sitter Class) is necessary. Parents will look at you in a different light when you say you’ve taken the course. They are a lot more trusting when they know you’ve been taught things.”

The next Safe Sitter Class is from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 11. Cost is $35 and includes all materials. For more information or to register, call Consult-A-Nurse at 843-797-3463 (FIND) or 888-797-3463 (FIND).