Do You Know How To Save Your Child From Drowning?

Like my mom, I always insist that my children be wearing Coast Guard approved life vests whenever they are in the pool. The water can be a lot of fun, but it's dangerous too. Mario Vittone, a writer for Modern Mom, recently wrote a really great article about how to recognize drowning and the steps you can take to save your child from drowning.

Remember:

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like What You’d Expect
Drowning is not the violent, splashing, call for help that most people expect. Lifeguards are trained to recognize drowning by experts and experience. If you’re going to have your kids near the water, then you should make sure that you know what to look for whether around lifeguards or not.
Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for, are rarely seen in real life.
Drowning is the #2 Cause of Accidental Death
The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind.
To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening (source: CDC).
This doesn’t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble – they are experiencing aquatic distress. Not always present before the instinctive drowning response, aquatic distress doesn’t last long – but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in their own rescue. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.
So if your children are playing in the water and everything sounds OK – don’t be too sure. Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don’t look like they’re drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up.
Children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.

Vittone has written an excellent description of the instinctive drowning response in the complete article as well as a really helpful list of drowning signs that every parent should know. Check it out before you go to the pool this weekend.