Having your child learn to swim and become comfortable with basic water safety is one aspect of preventing drownings and near-drownings. “Another piece is constant, capable watching by an adult,” Quan says. “Be attentive – not drinking or on the cell phone or in conversation.”
The standard for children younger than 5 is that the baby or child should be within touching distance of the supervising adult. “Parents may think that if their child falls in the water, they will hear lots of splashing and noise and they will be able to get to their child,” says safety information provided by Seattle Children’s Hospital and the Washington State Drowning Prevention Network. “In most cases, children slip under quickly and in silence.”
Even if a child older than 6 can swim, an adult should always be watching, according to the Washington State Drowning Prevention Network. Parents should also teach children about water hazards such as river currents, cold water, rip currents in the ocean, slippery river banks and sudden drop-offs.
Another prevention piece is having children wear life jackets or personal flotation devices (PDF’s). Seattle Children’s Hospital has worked with the Red Cross and other organizations to increase the use of life jackets for children. Here are the current Red Cross guidelines:
• Always wear a life jacket when boating or rafting and when using an inner tube or personal watercraft. (Washington’s boating safety regulations require children 12 and younger to wear life jackets on boats less than 19 feet long.) • Children and inexperienced swimmers should wear life jackets whenever in, on and around the water, even if a lifeguard is present. • Wear life jackets in open water, water parks or other challenging environments and around cold water and ice.
The life jackets are especially important if a child is in the high-risk age group (5 and younger) or if parents are outnumbered by the children they are watching. “In a pool, you’re learning to swim in a safe, controlled environment. Your child still may not be safe in open water,” Quan says. “Even if the surface temperature is warm, it can be cool below the surface and there are unknown currents.”
Even in pools, the latest recommendation, published in the February 2009 issue of Parks & Recreation magazine, is for lifeguards to “note and float” non-swimmers – to issue life jackets and educate parents on supervising their child within arm’s reach.
Many beaches around the state, including Seattle life-guarded beaches, have free life jacket rentals. Low-cost life jacket sales will be held Saturdays, June 20, July 18, Aug. 15 and Sept. 19, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Evans Pool, 7201 Green Lake Drive N. in Seattle. Life jackets from infant sizes to youth large will be $20; those for teen and adult sizes up to XXL will be $30. For more information, call 206-684-4961.
In addition, the National Institutes of Health, SAFE Kids and others emphasize the need to put barriers around pools and for parents and caregivers to learn CPR.
Seattle Children’s Hospital and the Washington State Drowning Prevention Network’s “Stay on Top of It” campaign includes brochures on “Water Safety for Children Birth to 5 Years” and “Tips for Children Ages 6 to 11” in English, Spanish, Cantonese and Vietnamese. “Water Safety for Teens 12 to 18 years” is available in Spanish and English. For this and other materials, including a water safety activity booklet for kids, visit www.drowning-prevention.org.
Drowning deaths in Washington state and in the nation have been steadily declining for the past 20 years. Yet unintentional drowning remains the second-leading cause of injury-related death among children ages 1 to 14 nationally and locally.
Washington state’s rate (1.4 child drowning per 100,000 population in 2005) is slightly above the national average. Each year, about 25 children die of drowning in our state and 30 are hospitalized after nearly drowning. For every child who drowns, four or five receive emergency care (although they may not be hospitalized) for near-drowning. Some suffer permanent brain damage.
“Clear Danger: A National Study of Childhood Drowning and Related Attitudes and Behaviors” was prepared by the nonprofit organization Safe Kids USA in 2004. Researchers conducted child and parent surveys and tabulated 2000 and 2001 child death-by-drowning statistics from 17 states, including Washington. Among the findings:
• 88 percent of children were under some form of supervision when they drowned. Many times the supervising adult was distracted. • 61 percent were ages 4 and younger, and were most likely to drown in pools, wading pools, hot tubs and bath tubs. • 23 percent were 4 to 9 years old and were most likely to drown in open water. • 17 percent were ages 10 to 14 and were also most likely to drown in open water. • 72 percent were male and 28 percent were female. • 97 percent of those who drowned in pools or open water were not wearing life jackets. • 74 percent of those who drowned did not know how to swim. • 6 percent drowned in the known presence of a lifeguard. • Nationally, African-American and American Indian children have drowning rates 50 to 70 percent higher than white children’s.
Washington state statistics, compiled by the Washington State Department of Health, are similar. Sixty-three percent of drowning victims are male and 90 percent do not wear a life jacket. However, the difference between African-American and white children is less pronounced in our state, while rates for other minorities are significantly higher.
“Drowning Death Rate per 100,000 Population for Washington Children Ages 0-17, 1994-2003” indicates that Native American and Asian children have significantly higher drowning rates compared to whites: 4.9 children and 2.7 children per 100,000, respectively, vs. 1.5 children per 100,000 for white children.
Dr. Linda Quan, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Seattle Children’s Hospital, has been studying drowning statistics and promoting prevention for 30 years. She notes a gap in swimming skills: 60 percent of African-American children cannot swim well, while 31 percent of white children cannot swim well. Lack of swimming skills and drowning rates are higher among some Asian sub-groups.
“Some groups are much less culturally acquainted with being around water,” she says. In the case of African-Americans, she points out that historically blacks were segregated from swimming pools and their lifestyles became less water-oriented. Quan also notes that some in the black community have cited other concerns, from not liking to be cold to not wanting to ruin elaborately-prepared hairstyles.
Immigrant groups and newcomers to Washington have higher drowning rates, she adds, noting a blip in drownings among Russians in the 1990s and recent spikes in teen drowning deaths in our region’s Vietnamese community. Modesty can be a concern among some Hispanic groups and Muslims. “The adults tell us they are not comfortable getting in the water or wearing bathing suits,” Quan says. If there is a fear of water, it can be passed on from parents to children.
