Since the weather got warmer, the drowning of children has been in the news every week. The ages have varied but the outcome is still the same. Understand in no way am I making light of this serious situations but it frustrates me. Why? Drowning is a preventable death. Yes, preventable with swimming lessons and certain precautions. Most towns offer free swimming lessons all year around. If not, organizations like the Make a Splash Foundation have local providers that offer low cost swimming lessons /scholarships to students to take lessons (swim swim swim I SAY is a local provider).
A child/toddler on Saturday got away from its parents and drowned in a neighbor’s pool in New Jersey. Unfortunately, I can’t imagine what these parents are going through; my heart goes out to them. I truly hope they don’t blame themselves; this was an accident. We all know child move quick and get away from us in a blink of an eye.
Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental deaths of children. 40% of the drownings occur when children were supervised, 39 % happened with no supervision of an adult and 18% were blamed on a lapse of supervision. During the summer, three-quarter of the death take place in a child’s own back yard.
Please remember if you own a pool, have a pool close by or will be near a pool to take certain precautions.
· A backyard pool should have at least a fence 4 foot high surrounding the pool with a self latching gate
· Parents/caregivers need to watch children in, near or around water at all times- not socialize, read, sleep or drink.
· Adults should know how to swim themselves and know CPR
· Remove all ladders when a pool is not in use and store them away
· Purchase a wrist alarm system for small children (alarms if the wrist gets wet) and have child wear them if they are around a pool or you have a pool in your back yard even if you are not using the pool that day. What is $200 when a child’s life can be saved
I ask anyone reading this to pass it on to anyone who has small children. Please help any parent not have to go through a tragic accident that can be prevented.
