How to Perform Infant CPR Techniques: A Step-by-Step Guide for Caregivers and Professionals

Infant CPR is a short, learnable sequence: check responsiveness, get help, compress the chest, give small breaths, and keep going until help takes over. This guide walks through infant CPR techniques for a baby under 1 year old, whether you are a parent, grandparent, childcare worker, or a healthcare or lifeguard trainee. You need no equipment to begin. Reading is not a substitute for a hands-on class with a manikin, but it will give you a clear order of actions to hold in your head. Doing something for a baby who is not breathing is far better than doing nothing, and imperfect CPR still helps.

Step 1: Check the scene and see if the infant responds

Before you touch the baby, look around for anything that could hurt you too: traffic, water, exposed electrical sources, unstable furniture, or a hot surface. If the scene is unsafe, move the infant only as far as needed to reach safety. A rescuer who becomes a second patient helps no one.

Next, check for a response. Tap the bottom of the baby's foot firmly and shout their name or "Are you okay?" Never shake an infant. Shaking can cause serious head and brain injury and does not help wake them.

While you tap, look at the chest. If the baby is not breathing, or is only gasping, begin CPR. Gasping is an irregular, snoring, or gulping effort that can occur in the first minutes of cardiac arrest, and it is not normal breathing. Take no more than 10 seconds for this check. If you are unsure, treat it as not breathing.

Confirm you are treating the right age group. For CPR purposes, an infant is under 1 year old. A child is from 1 year to puberty. The sequence is similar, but hand position and compression depth differ, so use the infant methods in this guide only for babies under 1.

Step 2: Call for help and get an AED

An AED (automated external defibrillator) is a portable device that analyzes the heart rhythm and can deliver a shock if one is needed. Getting emergency responders and an AED moving early matters, but only if it does not leave the baby without care.

If another person is with you, point to one specific person and give two jobs: "You, call 911 and bring an AED." Asking a room full of people often means everyone assumes someone else will do it.

If you are alone, the usual guidance for infants is to give about 2 minutes of CPR first and then call 911, because cardiac arrest in babies is more often caused by breathing problems than by a primary heart rhythm issue. If you have a phone, put it on speakerphone and call right after that first round, or call on speaker before you begin so your hands stay free. The exact wording has varied across American Red Cross and American Heart Association (AHA) materials and updates, and your instructor will teach the current version, so confirm it in a certified course. In a witnessed sudden collapse where you are alone, some guidance favors calling first. If a dispatcher is on the line, follow their instructions.

Use speakerphone whenever possible. Dispatchers are trained to coach you through compressions and can count with you.

Note the time the baby collapsed and any likely cause, such as choking, drowning, a fall, or a known medical condition. Tell this to the dispatcher and to responders when they arrive.

Step 3: Position the infant and your hands for compressions

Lay the baby face up on a firm, flat surface: the floor, a sturdy table, or a changing surface at a safe height. A bed, couch, or your lap is too soft, and the surface will absorb the force of your compressions. Keep one hand on the baby if you are on a raised surface so they cannot roll off.

There are two hand techniques, and which one you use depends on how many trained rescuers are present.

Two-finger technique (one rescuer)

Place two fingers in the center of the chest, just below an imaginary line between the nipples, on the lower half of the breastbone.

Keep your other hand on the baby's forehead to hold the head in position, or use it to support the baby's back if needed.

Keep your fingers straight and press straight down.

Two-thumb encircling-hands technique (two rescuers)

Place both thumbs side by side on the lower half of the breastbone. On a very small baby, they may overlap.

Wrap your fingers around the baby's ribs and support the back with them.

Press down with your thumbs while squeezing gently with your hands.

This second method is generally preferred when two rescuers are present because it tends to produce better depth and blood flow. Your instructor will let you practice both on a manikin.

The most common placement mistake is pressing too low, on the soft tip of the breastbone (the xiphoid), or off to the side on the ribs. Both can cause injury and make compressions less effective. Find the nipple line, then place your fingers or thumbs just below it on the breastbone.

Step 4: Give 30 high-quality compressions

Quality matters more than anything else in this step. Four things define it:

Depth: push down about 1.5 inches (4 cm), or roughly one-third the depth of the chest.

Rate: 100 to 120 compressions per minute, which is a little faster than two per second. Many instructors use the beat of a familiar song as a reference. Check with your instructor for the tempo cue your course uses.

Recoil: let the chest come fully back up between compressions. Recoil is the chest returning to its normal height, and it lets the heart refill with blood. Do not lean on the chest.

Minimal pauses: every interruption stops blood flow, so keep breaks short.

Count out loud ("1 and 2 and 3 and...") through all 30. Counting keeps your rhythm even, and it tells anyone helping you where you are in the cycle.

Compressions look gentle on a small baby, but they take effort. Fatigue sets in quickly and compression quality drops well before you feel exhausted. If a second trained rescuer is present, switch roles about every 2 minutes, or every five cycles, taking as little time as possible to swap.

Do not worry about hurting the baby. Rib or chest injury can happen with CPR, but it is far less serious than the outcome without it. A baby in cardiac arrest needs blood moving to the brain right now.

Step 5: Open the airway and give 2 rescue breaths

After 30 compressions, open the airway with a head-tilt chin-lift. For an infant, bring the head to a neutral or slightly extended "sniffing" position, as if the baby were smelling something. Tilting the head too far back can bend the soft airway and close it, which is the opposite of what you want. Lift the chin gently with your fingertips on the bony part, not the soft tissue under it.

Take a normal breath, then cover the baby's mouth and nose together with your mouth to form a seal. If you have a barrier device or a mask sized for infants, use it. If the baby's face is too large for you to cover both, cover the mouth only, or the nose only, and seal the other.

Give each breath over about 1 second. You only need enough air to make the chest visibly rise. An infant's lungs are tiny, so think of a small puff from your cheeks, not a full adult breath. Blowing too hard or too fast can force air into the stomach, which can cause vomiting and make breathing harder. Let the chest fall between the two breaths.

If the chest does not rise with the first breath, reposition the head, check that your seal is tight, and try again once. If it still does not rise, do not keep trying. Go straight back to compressions. Before your next set of breaths, look in the mouth for a visible object and remove it only if you can see it. Never sweep blindly with a finger.

Step 6: Continue cycles and use an AED when it arrives

The ratio for a single rescuer is 30 compressions to 2 breaths. When two trained rescuers are present, it changes to 15 compressions to 2 breaths, because breaths come around more often and children and infants more often need ventilation support. Repeat cycles without long pauses.

When the AED arrives, turn it on and follow its voice prompts. Do not stop CPR until the device is ready to analyze. Keep compressions going while someone else exposes the chest and applies the pads.

Pad choice: use infant pads, or an AED with a pediatric dose-attenuating system (a key or setting that reduces the shock energy), if available.

If only adult pads exist: use them rather than delay. The pads must not touch each other, so if the baby's chest is too small, place one pad on the center of the chest and the other on the back between the shoulder blades. Confirm this against current guidance from the Red Cross and AHA as of 2026, which your class will cover.

Clear the baby: when the AED says it is analyzing, and again before it delivers a shock, make sure nobody is touching the infant.

After a shock: restart compressions immediately. Do not wait to check for a pulse or movement.

Follow the machine. If it says no shock is advised, continue CPR until it tells you to pause for the next analysis.

Step 7: Know when to stop and what to do next

Continue CPR until one of these happens:

The infant starts to breathe or move.

Emergency medical personnel or another trained responder takes over.

An AED tells you to stop.

You are too exhausted to continue, or the scene becomes unsafe.

If the baby starts breathing normally, hold them securely or place them on their side, and keep watching their breathing and color until EMS arrives. Be ready to start again if they stop.

Choking is handled differently. A conscious infant who is choking and cannot cry, cough, or breathe gets a cycle of 5 back blows and 5 chest thrusts, not CPR. If the baby becomes unresponsive, switch to the CPR sequence in this guide. A dedicated choking guide covers that technique in detail.

Reading about infant CPR techniques helps, but muscle memory comes from practice. Taylored Instruction teaches American Red Cross and American Heart Association courses with infant manikins, so you can feel the correct depth, hand position, and breath size with an instructor correcting your technique. Classes are offered in Vancouver, WA, the Portland metro area, and San Luis Obispo, CA.

Keeping the sequence automatic when it counts

Skills fade, and guidelines get updated. Review these steps every few months, practice on a manikin in a certified class, and renew your certification on schedule so the sequence stays automatic under stress. In a real emergency, always follow the instructions of the 911 dispatcher.

Don't wait until an emergency happens. Get the life-saving certification you need today. Register for a CPR, First Aid, or Lifeguarding class and gain the confidence and skills to respond when it matters most.