Kids’ death by drowning increased this year. Here’s how they can stay safe in the water

Drowning is the leading preventable cause of death for children under 4 years old. And that’s only gotten worse this year in Florida.

Experts say that with kids at home for longer periods in the spring and summer because of the pandemic, there are more drowinings in Florida now than at this time last year.

From January to April, there was a 100% increase in young children drowning in Florida compared to the same period in 2019, according to data from Safe Kids Worldwide, an organization that works to protect children from unintentional injuries.

From May to June, the statewide increase decreased to about 38%, but that still means nine more deaths than this time last year, said Malvina Duncan, Miami-Dade Safe Kids coordinator. County figures aren’t released until the following year.

Broward has historically been the county with the most fatal drownings, followed by Miami-Dade, she said.

The main reason is backyard pools.

“Unintentional injuries are preventable,” Duncan said. “There’s not somebody trying to get that child injured. It is just being aware of the risk and taking steps to mitigate those risks.”

Duncan, who is also Nicklaus Children’s Hospital injury prevention coordinator, said the four layers to promote safe swimming and prevent drowning are instruction, supervision, barriers and response.

Instruction

Formal swim lessons and exposure to the water from a young age will show children how to react in water, Duncan said.

“Even if a child is young, we can always expose them to the water and show them in case they fall, how they can turn around and reach for the pool’s edge,” she said. “That’s key to survival.”

Swim instruction was on pause from March until June, when swim schools were allowed to reopen, said Juan Carlos “JC” Quintana, vice president and founder of Kyan’s Kause Swimming Foundation.

Quintana and his wife founded the nonprofit organization, which sponsors children’s swim lessons, in 2013 after their son drowned. Typically the foundation sponsors about seven kids per month in the summertime. This year, that figure has increased to about 12.

Quintana attributes the increase in demand to families spending more time at home.

“Drowning doesn’t discriminate,” he said.

Quintana said that swim schools should be treated as a category on its own when counties create their reopening plans.

“There’s a difference between a summer camp where you’re going casually into the pool and an actual swim school that has the licensing and ability to prevent drownings,” he said. “You might be preventing COVID, but you’re losing lives to drowning.”

Supervision

Whenever kids are in the pool, an adult should be the designated “water watcher,” Nicklaus’ Duncan said. This means their only task for a specified period of time is watching these young swimmers.

“Everybody assumes somebody else is watching,” she said.

Children who know how to swim should have someone actively watching them — and it shouldn’t be the person who is also in charge of the barbecue.

“Even Olympic swimmers can get a cramp and drown,” Duncan said. “Supervision is key.”

U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation devices can add an extra level of safety but aren’t a replacement for supervision, either.

Inflatable toys are just that — toys — and not added safety.

Barriers

Alarms on doors or windows can tip off adults that a child is going outside alone, Duncan said.

The next barrier after an alarm would be a fence or gate around the pool, which should stay closed — not propped open.

“We want to make sure the fences are doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” she said.

Response

In the event that a child is drowning, the adult response is the next step toward safety. Ideally, at least one supervising adult should be trained in CPR to start helping the child, Duncan said. And from there, adults should call emergency services.

“That’s the only time we actually want the parents to be on the phone near water,” she said. “It’s in case something happens, you want that phone to be nearby. But we absolutely would discourage the phone from being a distraction.”

If a child is submerged and inhales water, and the accident is not fatal, potential consequences could be permanent disabilities due to a loss of brain function or lung damage, Duncan said. In addition to added family trauma, economic repercussions could be medical bills and and a need for full-time caregiving.

“Non-fatal drownings are devastating, just as much as fatal drownings,” Duncan said. “That child may never be the same again.”

Resources

Miami-Dade County typically provides swim lessons, too, but hasn’t been able to this year because of the pandemic, said Jim O’Connor, chair of the county’s Drowning Prevention Coalition and aquatic safety coordinator for Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces.

O’Connor said the Red Cross, Safe Kids Worldwide and the Department of Health can be useful online resources for parents in the temporary absence of swim instruction.

“People don’t understand that the pool in their backyard is just as dangerous as having a highway out their back door,” he said.

This story was originally published July 10, 2020 at 6:00 AM.