Preventing Drowning Accidents: How to Keep Your Child Safe
Published on in Health Tip of the Week
Published on in Health Tip of the Week
Summer is finally here! We don’t know about you, but we’re more than ready to ramp up the trips to the pool and beach to stay cool while we enjoy the season. However, with all that fun comes an increased risk of drowning. Drowning is the leading cause of death for young children aged 1-4, and the second leading cause of death for children aged 5-14.
Each year almost 800 children from birth to 17 years old – or two children a day – lose their lives while bathing, swimming or playing in or around water. Nearly two-thirds of those deaths occur between May and August. Thousands more children will be treated at hospitals for near-drowning accidents. For every single death, another five children visit an emergency department because of a non-fatal drowning incident.
We spoke with Gina Duchossois, MS, an injury prevention expert with the Injury Prevention Program at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Chair of Safe Kids Southeastern Pennsylvania Coalition, to find out what parents should know about preventing drowning accidents and what steps they can take to keep their kids safe.
Safety experts have focused drowning-prevention efforts on swimming pools and, for younger children, in bathtubs and smaller containers of water. Those are still big risks, and parents should never leave children unattended when they are in or near any water, even for a minute. But the risks to children and teenagers in open water haven’t received as much attention.
“The big eye-opener in the study is that the greatest number of drownings occur in open water,” says Duchossois, “in ponds, lakes, rivers and the ocean. Also, the risks of open-water drowning go up in the teenage years, especially among boys.”
Reasons for the increase vary and include the following:
Drowning occurs quickly and quietly, so parents can’t assume they will be alerted by yells or splashes. In real life, there is very little splashing, waving or screaming. It’s critical to pay close attention and to prepare your child with basic water safety skills.
Gina P. Duchossois, MS, is an injury prevention expert with the Injury Prevention Program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Chair of Safe Kids Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Contributed by: Gina P. Duchossois, MS