Developed in coordination with the American Academy of Pediatrics, the new kit provides 22 minute at-home training for infant CPR and relief of choking.

The new training program can be of use to expectant parents, new parents, grandparents and siblings, to learn skills that could help save the life of an infant (newborn-12 months). The kit includes an infant CPR manikin, a 22-minute skills training DVD and two fold-out Quick-Reference Skills Reminders.

The Mini Baby manikin is an inflatable version of a traditional infant CPR manikin and was designed by Laerdal Medical, a leading manufacturer of therapy and training products.

An instructional DVD walks users through each step of the training, from inflating the manikin, doing chest compressions and rescue breathing, to how to relieve choking in an infant.

Knowing how to perform CPR and relieve choking save lives of infants who suffer cardiac arrest or whose airways become blocked by food or objects.

According to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, unintentional choking and suffocation are the leading cause of all injury deaths for infants under the age of one. In 2001, more than 636 infants died from unintentional choking or suffocation.

"Because the home is the most likely place for an infant to choke or suffer cardiac arrest, parents and caretakers are among the most important people to be trained in infant CPR and the relief of choking," said Sharon Keith, an instructor at the Queen's Medical Center and the coordinator of the American Heart Association's Training Center there

Estimates of the number of pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrests vary widely. These arrests are attributed to several causes, including trauma, sudden infant death syndrome, respiratory causes, cardiovascular causes and submersion (near-drowning). The reported average survival to hospital discharge after pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is 6.7 percent.