Summer Water Safety Reminders
Lives can change in the blink of an eye if we aren't careful.
We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming of weekend getaways and hot takes on food to bring you this message about summer water safety.
It’s summer. It’s hotter than Hades down here, and we all need to dip ourselves in the water, be it pool water or lake water, from time to time to deal with it. Swimming and water sports are so much a part of our culture that we can get complacent and take water safety for granted, but lives can change in the blink of an eye if we are not careful. Lives can change in the blink of an eye even if we are.
This became abundantly clear to us on a sunny summer day when Daniel was three years old. In those days, we met friends once a week at another friend’s pool for a long afternoon of swimming for the kids and gabbing for the moms. This bunch of friends was fearless in the water, and they were in and out of the pool like baby ducks in a pond for hours. The littles who didn’t know how to swim yet wore life jackets.
On this day, Daniel had his life jacket on and was making the rounds jumping off the diving board, swimming to the ladder, climbing out, and getting in line at the diving board to do it all over again. I was standing in the pool near the ladder watching the kids splash around. Daniel loved to swim wearing goggles—or “gobbles” as he called them—and he was wearing a child-size scuba mask he had borrowed from one of the other kids, the kind that covered the nose as well as the eyes.
I didn’t notice anything was wrong. Daniel jumped off the diving board and doggy-paddled to the ladder. He climbed out, and as soon as he was out of the pool, he passed out, face first, onto the concrete. He didn’t even try to reach out a hand to break his fall, and he wasn’t moving.
I jumped out of the pool, turned him over, and saw what was wrong. When he jumped off the diving board, the mask slipped over his mouth so his mouth and nose were covered. He was three years old and didn’t know to pull it off his mouth so he could breathe. I ripped the mask off his face, and he was already blue. I couldn’t tell if he was breathing, and to this day, I’m not certain that he was. I took his life jacket off so I could start CPR, and as I jostled him around taking the jacket off, he started breathing again. And he cried when I wouldn’t immediately let him back in the pool.
I was an arm’s length away, in the pool with him, AND paying attention, and we had a scary pool accident anyway. Drowning is the leading cause of unintended death for children age 1-4, and it’s not hard to see why since they can get themselves in so much trouble so quickly. Our scary pool story has a happy ending, but a heartbreaking many do not.
The Red Cross has an excellent list of water safety tips for kids here, and I encourage you to read them all. They recommend that all children learn to swim and that young children and those who have not yet learned to swim wear life jackets in the pool or lake. Swim in designated areas only and under the supervision of a lifeguard when you can. Supervise children closely, even if they are wearing a life jacket, even if there are lifeguards present. Remember older kids can quickly get themselves in trouble in the pool too by finding creative (insane) new ways to play with otherwise safe pool toys and floats so you have to keep an eye on them too. Finally, take a CPR class and know basic pool rescue techniques. If it’s been a while since you’ve taken a CPR class, take a refresher course because recommended CPR techniques do change from time to time.
The day after Daniel’s pool accident I went to Target to find a mask like the one he was wearing that was still in the packaging so I could read the label. I was worried maybe I let him play in the pool with a mask that was not appropriate for his age group. I found the exact mask, and the label said it was rated for children three and up—safe for kids his age to use. I guess I shouldn’t have let him wear it to jump off the diving board, but he had jumped of the same diving board a hundred times wearing his “gobbles,” and it never registered to me that the mask he had on would be a problem. There’s probably small print somewhere warning against this sort of thing, but I’ve never seen it. At least now you know not to let a three-year-old jump off a diving board wearing a scuba mask without first instructing him to make sure it doesn’t cover his mouth and his nose.
All this to say, it just takes a second, a breath, a heartbeat, for a pool accident to happen. It’s important to stay vigilant and follow pool safety strategies to keep everyone safe and happy all summer long.
Interesting Stuff From the Interwebs
News of a Modern Day Jonah:
“'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale off Provincetown”
Every time I hear this story, I can’t help but think of Dan Zanes and this song. Maybe because I heard it eleventy million times in the car when the kids were little.
This article in Runner’s World was awarded a well-earned Pulitzer Prize.
Last week we talked about the wonders of Homemade Peach Ice Cream. My peach ice cream didn’t make this list from Food and Wine, but it looks like a good list anyway.
“The Best Ice Cream in Every State”
Sorry about missing last week, friends. Summer has been much busier than I expected, and I can’t always find quiet times to write. I got my first little harvest from my garden experiment—two poblano peppers, three jalapenos, and a few cherry tomatoes. I’m finding that a garden that just meets minimum light requirements doesn’t yield a huge harvest, but we’re enjoying watching everything grow. It’s been nice to be able to step out and cut my own herbs for dinner too.
Until next time,
Karla
I remember that day like it was yesterday. Not only were YOU paying attention, but there were at least three OTHER moms who were diligently watching too. It is still terrifying to think about all these years later. Of course, now, D could probably stand up in the deep in and still have his head above water. :)