You are assessing a four-year-old patient whose panicked mother states that she cannot wake him. The child is breathing but his eyes are closed. To best determine the child's mental status, you should first:

a. apply pressure to the child's nail beds.
b. say loudly, "Open your eyes!"
c. ask the mother how long the child has been asleep.
d. consider the child to be unresponsive.

Answer: b