Mini First Aid

This year we have added new staff members to our busy Mini First Aid head office team and as we further expand operations we are thrilled to have secured support from Finance Yorkshire to help us keep reaching new levels of growth. Thanks to Alex McWhirter and the team at Finance Yorkshire.

In this week's Family Health Podcast episode, Kate chats with Aliya Porter RNutr, a Registered Nutritionist and a mum of three who runs Porter Nutrition and Weaning Centre. Aliya is a mine of information about nutrition in pregnancy and how you can look after your own and your baby’s health. We cut through the confusion of advice and guidance online to find out exactly what supplements, nutrients and vitamins are important for pregnant women and what should be avoided. We also talk about how to support body health and recovery through nutrition after giving birth. We know you will hang on Aliya’s every word like we did! Find the Family Health Podcast at the link in the comments or on your favourite podcast platform.

A very warm welcome to our newest franchisee who launched with her first baby & child first aid class for parents last week. Manjula has taken over Southport, Wigan & Leigh area. Manjula is a mum of two and has been working for the ambulance service for over 10 years so she has seen her fair share of accidents and incidents. "I know just how important first aid is and what a difference it can actually make...it is a pleasure to teach parents, grandparents and families first aid to give everyone confidence to use it whenever they need to, and make a difference to someone." Welcome to the team Manjula! 💚

If your child is unfortunate enough to have to spend time in hospital, you may have met a Play Therapist. These amazing teams therapeutically support children, and parents, through the toughest times in their lives. We hope you will never have to experience your child having treatment or an extended stay in hospital but if the worst happens, knowing what a play therapist can do and when you can ask for one could make a huge difference for your family. Tune into this week’s Family Health podcast where we chat with a mum whose two year old son has spent extended time in hospital due to a respiratory condition and to Megan, a health play specialist on the paediatric critical care unit at Leeds hospitals.

Developmental Language Disorder affects around 7.6% of all children – that's two children in every average class of 30 in the UK. This week's Family Health Podcast is a chat all about DLD with the brilliant Dr Hannah Hobson of University of York, an expert in neurodevelopmental conditions and Hannah has also kindly written this blog for us, it’s a fascinating insight into the challenges that some children in your child’s school will be experiencing right now. https://lnkd.in/ezpQkM7Y

Many of us have never heard of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), yet this affects around two children in every classroom in schools across the UK and can affect literacy, learning, friendships and emotional well-being. DLD can mean a child has difficulties talking and/or understanding language. It’s important to understand DLD and the challenges that children with DLD face every day in and out of school as their difficulties can be hard to spot and may be ‘hidden’ for a long time. Kate chatted with Dr Hannah Hobson, an expert in neurodevelopmental conditions, to find out more about this condition and it’s a fascinating insight into the challenges that some children in your child’s school will be experiencing right now. Please take a listen and share with any friends who might be concerned about their child or someone they know. Search Family Health Podcast on Spotify, Apple, and all podcast platforms or download and save to your playlist for later.

At this time of year, our children coming home from school or nursery with coughs, sore throats and snotty noses can feel never-ending. How do you know when your child has a cold or the flu or something more serious? It can be really difficult to know when to worry, what you can do to help alleviate some of their symptoms and whether it’s something you should keep your child off school for. On this week’s Family Health podcast, Kate chats with Dr Lillie Parker, an NHS paediatrician, about winter colds and flu and about the RSV virus which can cause the more serious condition of bronchiolitis, something that Kate has experienced with 5 out of 6 of her children, 4 of whom ended up needing hospital treatment. This is a fascinating chat, full of insight, information and advice. If you have a little one, you need to check out this episode - we'll pop the link in the first comment. Search Family Health by Mini First Aid to download now from your favourite podcast platform, and hit subscribe so you don’t miss any future episodes. Thanks, as always, to Niraj Tewani and the team at Things Happen for sponsoring this series of the podcast.

We already knew our Teddy hot & cold gel pack was a winner for soothing head bumps and scrapes and now he’s also a winner in the Mother & Baby Awards for Best Safety Product! ⭐️ If you know about bringing a new product to market, you will know the blood, sweat, tears and time it takes to make it happen! We are so proud of our team who had the vision, knew this would be a brilliant product for our customers and brought it to life. A super proud moment for Kate, Matt and our team. Huge well done to Michelle Chandler who has moved on from her role at Mini First Aid but was instrumental in leading the project to get Teddy to market. Thanks also to our commercial manager Claire Lockwood-Clark and Ewan in our supplies team. Thanks to Mother&Baby Awards Mother&Baby, to George at Asda for sponsoring the awards, to Sara Davies MBE for her continuing support and to Abigail Baldwin and Chloe Baldwin at Buttercrumble for the gorgeous Teddy design work.

Thank you Female Business Network for recognising Kate and Mini First Aid's commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion in first aid training and awareness.

Retaining franchisees is something we are really proud of and goes hand in hand with the 5-star franchisee satisfaction feedback we have received for the last few years. Congratulations to Christina Sutemire who has recently renewed her contract and starts her 4th year with us at Mini First Aid 🎉