King’s Daughters Medical Center community educator andregistered nurse Kim Bridge wants to teach Brookhaven’s teenagedbabysitters how to do more than just turn on the cartoons andpacify the children under their charge.

Beginning at 9 a.m. on Friday, July 18, Bridge will host acomprehensive babysitting education course sponsored by theAmerican Red Cross in the hospital Education Annex. The annualclass will teach young babysitters how to baby-proof a house, carefor children and handle emergencies.

“We go over it all,” Bridge said. “I will teach them how tosurvey a house and identify dangers, how to select age-appropriateactivities and how to feed, burp and change diapers. We coveralmost everything in a full day.”

Bridge said the most important aspect of childcare he will teachin the class is pediatric CPR and the Heimlich maneuver – basicinstruction that could turn a babysitter into a baby saver. Theacquisition of these skills will result in participants earning anAmerican Red Cross certification.

It will also result in a city full of more relaxed parents, hesaid – parents who are always on a nervous prowl to find goodbabysitters.

“You’d be surprised at the number of parents we have that callthe hospital and tell us they would just feel a little bit betterif their babysitters had a little formal training,” Bridge said.”We get calls looking for trained babysitters all the time. There’sa need for it in Brookhaven.”

The babysitting class costs $35 for six hours of instruction,Bridge said, and is limited to 10 participants – boys and girlsaged 11 to 15. Interested people may call Bridge at KDMC toregister for the class at 601-835-9406.