The Best Online Infant CPR Classes

Taking care of a baby isn’t just about feeding them, cleaning them and playing with them—it’s also about keeping them safe. While there are plenty of things you can do to help prevent accidents (install cabinet locks, put bumpers on sharp corners, anchoring furniture), they can still. And if your little one has pre-existing health concerns, it’s a good idea to be prepared in the event of cardiac arrest. And that means knowing how to perform basic first aid and CPR on your little one.

You may be somewhat familiar with CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) as far as chest compressions and rescue breathing—we’ve all seen at least one dramatic CPR scene in movies or TV—but did you know that there’s a special technique just for infants under 12 months old? Babies have much shallower chests and weaker rib cages than adults or even older children, so performing chest compressions meant for an adult can lead to serious injury.

The best way to learn CPR specifically for infants is to take a class taught by a certified CPR instructor. You can typically find these classes at your local American Red Cross location or at your nearest hospital. Or, to have more flexibility with class times (and not have to change out of your loungewear), you can take an infant CPR and first aid course online from the comfort of your own home!

We’ve rounded up the best infant CPR classes to take online so you can take advantage of virtual learning and be prepared in the event of an emergency.

Best Infant CPR Classes

American Red Cross First Aid/CPR/AED Online

$37

Easily the first name in first aid and CPR, the Red Cross offers online classes with infant CPR, first aid and AED, as well as First Aid/CPR/AED for older children and adults.

Keep in mind: If you need certification that meets OSHA requirements for your job, you’ll also need to complete an in-person skills session in addition to the online class (and needs to be completed within 90 days of finishing the online component).

Tinyhood Safety 101 CPR and Choking (For 0-12 Months)

FREE

We love Tinyhood for their wide variety of educational offerings (from breastfeeding and childbirth to starting solids and sleep training), and their CPR and Choking course provides all the expert instruction and invaluable learning materials you can expect from a Tinyhood class.

You can access this course for free after creating an account, and you don’t need to pay for a membership (though you will need a membership if you want to watch any of their other content). Each video lesson is short and sweet (often less than two minutes long), and with unlimited access, you can go back and watch the videos as much and as often as you need. You also get about a dozen downloadable guides and checklists to keep on hand in case of an emergency.

Keep in mind: This course covers only infant CPR (newborn to 12 months old). If you need a course on child CPR (up to 12 years old), you’ll need to pay for the membership, starting at $12.95 per month with the annual plan.

InfantCPR.com

$39.99

If you’re looking to get CPR certified, this online course offers two years of certification and free renewal after a 25-question exam. The course itself takes only about 30 minutes to complete (plus however much time you need for the exam), so it’s perfect for caregivers with time constraints. There’s also a special section of the course that helps you tell the difference between a need for CPR versus choking relief. And the best part: once you purchase the class, you have access to it forever. You can retake the class and the exam as many times as you want without paying again, and there’s no expiration date on your access (though your certification expires after two years).

American Health Care Academy

$14.95

The American Health Care Academy offers a low-cost, low-time commitment online course for anyone on a budget. For less than $15, you can learn CPR for adults, children and infants. Once you’ve passed the quiz with a score of 75 percent or higher (you can retake the quiz as many times as you need), you can download your certification and print out a wallet-sized certification card to keep with you on the go.

If you want First Aid training as well, the American Health Care Academy offers a CPR/First Aid combo course for just $36.95.

AHA Heartsaver Pediatric CPR/First Aid/AED Blended Course

$110; $21 for the online portion + ~$90 for the in-person portion

While the other courses on this list are fully online, the American Heart Association offers a hybrid class so you get the benefits of both online learning and in-person hands-on training. That means you’d get to practice CPR on an infant-sized dummy rather than with a makeshift dummy from home (often a baby doll or a rolled-up towel) or only learning theoretically.

The online portion of this course ranges from ninety minutes to three hours, depending on your individual learning speed. The in-person portion lasts about two hours and is sold separately from the online course. In-person classes are located at a local AHA Training Center and are led by an AHA BLS or Heartsaver instructor.

The Baby Manual

$59 and up

If you’re looking for a more complete infant care experience, the aptly named Baby Manual offers a full suite of topics from basic CPR and how to treat common infant health concerns (rash, fever, cradle cap) to breastfeeding tips, fun activities to entertain baby and how to establish a sleep routine. For $59, you have the choice between unlimited online access for six months or a two-disk DVD set. Keep in mind: The Baby Manual only covers care for newborns to six-month-olds, whereas other courses that are specific to infant CPR cover up to 12-month-olds.

National CPR Foundation

Free to access

Don’t have time to take a full course? Or maybe you took a course a few years ago and now just need a quick refresher of the basics. Thankfully, the National CPR Foundation has provided a free (yes, totally free) webpage with the most important things to know when performing infant CPR, including video examples performed on a dummy. While this site won’t take the place of hands-on training or live video coaching from a certified instructor, it’s an excellent resource for quick reference for budget-conscious caregivers.

Once you’ve taken a CPR course…

…keep a “cheat sheet” handy at home! In an emergency situation, especially when it’s your own little one who needs help, it might be challenging to remember every single piece of information you learned from your CPR class. Thankfully, many online and in-person courses come with a printable sheet that you can keep easily visible or readily accessible to remind you of each crucial CPR step.

It’s also recommended to keep a CPRWrap handy at home or in your diaper bag. This device spreads out over your child’s torso like an apron (with a small one-way breathing barrier mask to ensure sanitary rescue breaths), and it conveniently includes step-by-step instructions for infant CPR right over where you’d perform chest compressions.

The CPRWrap also comes in child size (ages one through eight years) and adult size (ages eight years and up).