The paediatric airway terrifies many of us: at the smaccMINI paediatric critical care workshop, Fran Lockie explores some real-life examples of airway challenges and considerations. He takes us through the concept of the "airway bundle" and how teamworking and communication is key to improving paediatric airway care, emphasising the concepts we can borrow from adult practice to offload some of our cognitive burden and outlining the key components of first-class post-intubation care, with pitfalls and pearls of wisdom from his experiences as a prehospital clinician. Phil Hyde follows on with the nuance of assessing paediatric ventilation, starting with simple interventions and exploring the factors that make big differences for children in respiratory distress.