Free tickets for baby first aid courses being offered

Nearly 3000 free tickets for baby and toddler first aid courses are now on offer to help Melbourne parents learn how to save their children's lives.

The Tiny Hearts First Aid program, which is run by a former paramedic Nikki Jurcutz, is aimed at mums, grandparents and carers of babies and toddlers and teaches them how to deal with medical situations.

"It's so important to know these skills because you can't rely on an ambulance arriving in time to save your child's life," Ms Jurcutz said.

The participants are taught how to cope with a raft medical situations, from choking and convulsions to fevers and falls.

"You'll actually be able to self-triage pretty much and say 'this is an emergency, this is what I need to do,'" she said.

More than 3000 parents in Melbourne’s south-east and north-west can enroll in the courses for free thanks to primary health network funding.

The training is available elsewhere for a fee but Tiny Hearts is also petitioning the government to support no-cost pediatric first aid across Australia. 

You can find out more about the program here.