What should be on an emergency contact list for a babysitter?

Start with 911 and the address

A list for a sitter should open with the number for a real emergency and the information a dispatcher asks for first. Nemours KidsHealth, in its advice on teaching children to use 911, notes that the operator will ask what happened, where the caller is and who needs help. A sitter can answer the first and last questions on the spot. The middle one is what trips people up in someone else's home.

So write the full street address, with the apartment number and floor if you have them. KidsHealth recommends writing your phone number and address down for the sitter precisely so they can give it to a 911 operator, and suggests making sure your house number is clearly visible from the street so responders can find it. A neighbor's teenager may know which house is yours without ever having learned the number.

KidsHealth's guide to when children need urgent care lists reasons to call 911 such as a child who is not breathing or is turning blue, is unconscious after a fall, is having a seizure, has a serious allergic reaction, is choking, or has a large cut that will not stop bleeding. You do not need to hand the sitter a medical manual, but KidsHealth recommends telling them in advance when to call 911 before contacting you.

Then the people, in the order to try them

After 911, the AAP's babysitting checklist names the parents' phone numbers, neighbors, the pediatrician, fire and rescue, police, the Poison Help line, the home phone and the home address. KidsHealth adds friends and relatives. The order you write them in matters more than it seems, because a frightened sitter usually calls the first name on the page.

1. Both parents' cell numbers, with where you will be and roughly when you will be back. KidsHealth suggests telling the sitter how to reach you at all times, and a second number covers the phone that is on silent.
2. Someone who can be at the door in minutes: a neighbor, a nearby relative or a friend. If you are forty minutes away, this is the person who can actually help, so write how far away they live next to the name.
3. A second backup, in case the first does not pick up. The AAP suggests that the list include trusted neighbors and relatives by name, not just numbers, so the sitter knows who they are calling.

The two numbers people forget

The Poison Help line, 1-800-222-1222, belongs on every list in the United States. America's Poison Centers, which represents the country's 53 accredited poison control centers, says the line gives expert advice 24/7/365 at no cost, and it offers a way to save the number by texting POISON to 301-597-7137. The AAP suggests displaying 911 and the poison control number on or near the phone at all times, or asking the sitter to add both to their contacts.

The pediatrician's office is the other number parents leave off, on the reasoning that the sitter will call them first. Include it anyway, with the doctor's name, for the evening you cannot be reached. The AAP also suggests leaving each child's date of birth and approximate weight in case medical professionals need them. Both take one line and spare a sitter from guessing.

If your child has a serious allergy

If a doctor has diagnosed your child with a food allergy, the list should point to the plan the doctor wrote, not to the sitter's judgment. FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education) publishes a Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Emergency Care Plan, formerly called the Food Allergy Action Plan. FARE describes it as a document that sets out recommended treatment for an allergic reaction, is signed by a physician and includes emergency contact information, and it advises keeping the plan where others can find it.

Nemours KidsHealth adds two points that matter on a sitter night. If your child's doctor prescribed epinephrine, KidsHealth says two doses should always be with your child or with the adult caring for your child. It also says to teach the people who care for your child the signs of a reaction and the instructions your doctor gave you, and notes that some manufacturers supply a trainer device with no medicine in it for practice.

This section describes published guidance from FARE and Nemours KidsHealth. It is not medical advice. Your child's doctor decides what goes in their allergy plan, and that plan is what the sitter should follow.

Outside the United States

The numbers change by country, and a sitter from somewhere else may not know them. In the UK, the NHS says to call 999 or go to A&E in an emergency, and to use NHS 111 when someone needs medical help that is not an emergency. NHS 111 online is for people aged 5 and over; for a child under 5, the NHS says to call 111.

Wherever you live, write the local emergency number on the list in full, even if it seems too obvious. A note that says "call emergency services" is little help to someone standing in an unfamiliar kitchen with a crying child.

Mistakes that make a list useless

Only one parent's number. If that phone is on silent at a concert, the list has failed. Give both numbers and the name of the place you will be.

A list nobody can find. The AAP suggests keeping the numbers on or near the phone or in the sitter's own contacts, and KidsHealth suggests a list near each phone. A sheet in a kitchen drawer does neither. Most sitters carry their own phone, so send the list to it before you leave.

Numbers that went stale. Neighbors move, practices change numbers, grandparents switch phones. Review the list whenever any of it changes rather than on the night you need it.

If you keep your child's details in SitterCard, the emergency contacts sit on the card just below allergies, one tap from calling on your Apple Watch, and you can send the sitter the card as an image or PDF before you go. The address, the poison line and any doctor's allergy plan still need to reach the sitter as well.

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