Chapter 2: Sick? Get Help Fast
Lily: "Feeling bad? Don't wait. Tell a grown-up straight away!"
Rangers are not doctors. Our job is to notice, tell a grown-up fast and help gently. Dr. Hazel says the quickest helper is the one who speaks up.
What Rangers know
- Danger signs: go to a helper now. These signs in any child mean a grown-up takes them to a clinic straight away:
- breathing that is fast or hard work
- can't drink or keeps throwing up
- very sleepy or hard to wake
- a fit (shaking they can't stop)
- a high fever in a baby
- Tummy trouble. With runny poo, the body loses water. Sip safe water often, keep eating, and let a grown-up mix the special drink (ORS). Wash hands after the toilet.
- Sleep under the net. Where there are mosquitoes, sleep under a treated net every night, tucked in all round. Tell a grown-up about holes.
- Rash plus fever. Tell a grown-up, stay a little apart from babies, and let a health worker check.
- Cool a burn. Put the burn under cool, clean, running water for 20 minutes. No butter, oil, toothpaste or ice. Tell a grown-up.
- A small cut. Wash it with clean water, cover it with something clean, and tell a grown-up. Only a grown-up opens the first-aid kit.
- Too hot / too cold.
- Too hot: red face, headache, dizzy. Go to shade, sip water, tell.
- Too cold: shivering, slow words. Put on dry layers, get a blanket, tell.
- Calling for help. Know how to find a grown-up and say: who is hurt, where you are, and what happened.
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Medicine is a grown-up's job. Never take or give medicine yourself.
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Cholera and bad diarrhoea: go now. Lots and lots of watery poo (sometimes like rice water), sunken eyes, very thirsty or very weak: a grown-up takes them to the health tent straight away, giving sips of ORS on the way. Clean water, clean hands and latrines stop it spreading.
- Cough plus fast or hard breathing (the chest pulls in, a noisy breath) in a child or baby is a pneumonia danger sign: go to the clinic now. Keep babies warm.
- Vaccines. The clinic jabs and drops protect you from measles and other serious illnesses. When helpers call for vaccines, go with your grown-up. A little pinch, big protection.
- Dengue and mosquitoes. Mosquitoes that bite in the day breed in tiny pools of still water. With a grown-up, cover water containers, tip out water in old pots and tyres, and wear long sleeves. Fever with a bad headache, pain behind the eyes, a rash or bleeding gums: tell a grown-up and go to the clinic.
- Too hot signs are in Chapter 11.
- Learn your local help number with your grown-up, and where the nearest health tent is.
Ranger checklist
- ☐ I know lots of watery poo means go now.
- ☐ I know cough plus fast breathing means go now.
- ☐ I go for vaccines when helpers call.
- ☐ I help cover water and tip out puddles in pots, with a grown-up.
- ☐ I can name three danger signs.
- ☐ I tell a grown-up fast when someone feels very sick.
- ☐ I know the cool-water rule for burns (20 minutes).
- ☐ I can wash and cover a small cut, and then tell.
- ☐ I can say who, where and what when I ask for help.
- ☐ I sleep under the net, tucked in.
- ☐ I never touch medicine.
Earn your badge (Get Help Fast · First Aid; Badge_Matrix.csv)
| Level | Get Help Fast (Health) | First Aid |
|---|---|---|
| ❤️ Heart | Say: "Feeling bad? Tell a grown-up straight away." | Say: "Cool, clean, cover, tell." |
| 🥉 Bronze | Point to the danger-sign pictures. | Show the burn rule and a small-cut cover with props. |
| 🥈 Silver | Practise asking for help (who, where, what) with a grown-up. | Help a grown-up with a real small cut by fetching clean water and a cloth. |
| 🥇 Gold | Help make the family's "where is the clinic" card. | Teach the burn rule to a friend. |
| 💎 Platinum | Help a health worker's talk for a group, with a grown-up. | Join a real first-aid course for young people, with a grown-up. |
Watch and learn
- Planned Health arc: Danger Signs: Go to the Clinic Now · Sleep Under the Net · Tummy Trouble · Helping With Baby · Hungry Signs and the Feeding Tent · Measles: Rash + Fever · Cool a Burn
- Planned First Aid arc: Wash a Small Cut · Call for Help · Too Hot / Too Cold (Dr. Hazel's kit)
- Produced: EP05 Wash Your Hands (#005)
- Go Bag #GB1: the contact card and safe pocket help helpers reach your family.
Grown-up note
These are recognise-and-refer messages, written in the spirit of IMCI-style danger signs and IFRC first-aid guidance. They are not a substitute for local health services. Diarrhoea: mix an ORS packet exactly as printed (usually 1 packet in 1 litre of safe water). If there is no packet, a home mix is 6 level teaspoons of sugar + ½ level teaspoon of salt in 1 litre of safe water, given in small, frequent sips. Keep breastfeeding and keep feeding. Ask a health worker about zinc for children, which WHO recommends for 10–14 days (the health worker gives the dose). Have a medical reviewer check this chapter before it is used.
Fact-checked Oct 21, 2026, approved by David McKellips.