Children drowning on holiday.

Surely it happens more on holiday because there’s more water and more swimming???

Its hard to drown in the average UK park or back garden, but much easier to drown when you spend 7 hours a day next to the pool or the sea on holiday…

This came with a paddling pool from Aldi a couple of weeks ago. It will be packed in our holiday bag.
Last year a child drowned in the water park attached to our hotel . They slipped behind a waterfall rock thing and drowned.
I will always rather be over vigilant and neurotic when it comes to water

It’s so sad. I suspect there are many near misses. My very sensible SIL and BIL were unpacking on arrival at their resort when SIL happened to look up out the apartment window and saw nephew (6) struggling in the pool. BIL managed to run and dive to get him out. SIL said how lucky they were - they hadn’t noticed he’d wandered out.
An excited child on holiday and a moment’s distraction is all it takes.

I spoke to a mum on holkday and she told me about her best friend who was packing up their suitcase. Bad a ground floor next to the pool, thought the door was locked but the small child unlocked it and headed for the pool and drowned. I know of another child that drowned at a busy water park, 3 gear old went with the parents and they were in thr restaurant area, kid made a run for it striaght into the deep end of the water slide deep pool, situatated near the open restaurant area, which should have had a lifguard, but noone saw him and after searching for him found him meters down at the bottom. I have been to the same water park and it was so busy I can see if tour child slipped through the crowds you would take too long to get through and work out which direction they went in.
We had a near miss on holiday, my 5 year old was sitting on the shore line, my 9 hear old paddling up to his knees. I waded in to tell him to come back closer, turned around and the 5 year old was gone. I frantically searched in the ocean and felt such dread and fear that I will never forget it But he had actually gone up the beach and was by the bar. It really was 2 seconds that my back was turned, no more than that and he had disapeared.

It is so tragic, the only way to ensure complete safety is to not go near a pool or the sea.

Unfortunately Ive seen this in action, as I live in Spain.British Parents and grandparents at the beach necking beers and young children/ toddlers playing in the waves. Madness.

Terribly sad.

Stayed in a hotel recently where they gave us a room which you could access the pool from, never again, was waking up in the night worried toddler was in their bed.

In the UK we are at least quite ‘lucky’ that our climate means home pools are quite unusual.

The thing is, it’s water safely more broadly. Every summer there are teenagers/adults who pass away after jumping in cold water and getting into difficulties. Toddlers in pools is just another example. Either way it’s always very sad for all involved.

I think the swimming lessons in Primary school should all be about floating and how to stay safe. They don't do enough to actually teach the kids to swim so it ought to be all about safety.

I read news a few years ago about a child drowning on holiday, people trying to save them and the parent didn't even know about it for minutes afterwards. I'm sure there are tragic accidents, but I think a lot are down to the parents drinking too much and not watching them

Children should not be wearing armbands where have people found actual official information to say these are safe?

I saw something online that hit hard

"If everyone is watching the kids, then no one is." Basically, everyone will assume that someone else is doing it.

You need one designated person at a time to keep an eye on them all

Unfortunately, no matter how careful we are, accidents happen. I bet no parent can say, hand on heart, that their child has never e.g. fallen downstairs, slipped over, gone missing for a few minutes, cut themselves etc. I agree that it's very important to watch children around water but there can be all sorts of unexpected distractions or events that mean you have to look away for a second or two. No amount of public information advice will alter that.

I work in a hotel pool and parents who let their kids come down to the pool unsupervised is a common occurrence. But I would rather be the mean lifeguard than have to do a rescue.

Also when you are buying kids swimwear can you look at bright colours as some colours seem to vanish under water and if there is a lot of people in a pool it is easy to miss someone under water in some colours.

This made my blood run cold - I find pool holidays SO stressful with young children (WHY does Europe not have laws about requiring pools to be properly fenced?). Those poor parents.

just to the PP who said 2 is too young to be learning about water safety - it absolutely isn’t. My kids both understood float to survive and monkey monkey on the side of the pool by 2, and I worked incredibly hard to get them to be able to swim a (domestic pool) length with safety crawl by the time they were 3. It takes time and money and effort but I think it’s well spent.

Don't forget about the teens and adults who take it upon themselves to do water sports (particularly at the coast) and not wear a buoyancy aid because they are too cool.

Water safety across the board isn't taken seriously.

There is a terrifying statistic about how many child drownings happen with parents less than a meter away from them, as in physically in the pool with them. People don't realize how completely silent drowning is. There isn't anything to see. I am cheerfully paranoid about my kids near water (although absolutely no judgement here, because it is so so hard).

I'd have clobbered him.

Well I will say what most are thinking: it is negligence plain and simple.

No one can possibly watch their child for every second. Let alone more than one child. So there may be parents who are highly engaged and curious and just deeply deeply unlucky.

That said, I do think many people including parents do not give enough thought to water safety.

Most children who drown are within 20ft of an adult. It's not toddlers sneaking off on their own that is the highest risk but the kids in the pool with adults or with adults just nearby.

Drowning is silent. There is no screaming and waving. Films are very misleading about it.
Children will look like they are climbing a ladder as they drown as they will be vertical and frantically using arms and legs to try and climb (which is why you need to try and teach them "float to live").
Their mouth will bob just under the water, they inhale some but manage to get themselves up through their frantic ladder climbing, it happens again and then again and then they've inhaled too much and drown.
It can look a lot like they are just doggy paddling. But always look - is there mouth going under? Have they gone vertical, rather than horizontal?
If so, grab them immediately.

No screaming. You can't scream if you are actually drowning.

I grabbed a boy at a busy beach who frantically ladder climbing, just as the lifeguard also noticed and leapt in to get to him - the lifeguard then told me off for not keeping a close eye on him (once he was safely out of the water!) and I explained I didn't know him. His dad had not only missed his son drowning but missed the lifeguard running and diving in, his son being taken out and wrapped in blankets and checked on the beach...

But he was lucky and the boy was fine, if a bit shocked.

He had another child and thought the boy was a much better swimmer than he was.

Much better parents might still be much unluckier.
Reducing the probability of it happening is important of course but using any individual case to cast aspersions on that family when we have no idea what happened is not fair.

It may sound counterintuitive but accidents seem to happen more when there are more adults rather than less. One adult, you are focused. 2 or more... someone else is watching.

Definitely this. Its a tragedy, but I do see how it can happen

The cruise ship one has never left me

Fucking hell, yes. One of the most horrifying thing I've read about.

I could never understand how that poor bloke was convicted though (although I don't think he actually went to prison). He just thought he was letting the toddler lean against the window to look out and didn't realise one in a very long bank of windows had been opened so there was no glass.

Absolutely heartbreaking and a terrible, terrible accident by what appeared to be an engaged and watchful grandad. I think that case is entirely different to people who take their eyes off their kids around bodies of water tbph.

I think a lot of people just don't understand the dangers of water and how fast children (or anyone) drowns. Also people don't think accidents will happen to them, they are on holiday and relaxing. Its so easy. I never read by the pool when DD was small. Always sat watching her like a hawk, then DH would take over. People were always telling me to 'relax', she's fine, she loves the water, you can't live your life as if any moment tragedy will strike.

But as someone said up thread 'but for the Grace of God'...it takes seconds and despite my best efforts I'm sure I was distracted at times and was just lucky.

My husband watched my 3 year old drown on holiday - thankfully I was able to resuscitate her - she asked to go swimming, he said yes, she got in the pool in front of him and he didn't realise she wasn't in armbands. It happens so quickly and silently. It's very easy to judge but literally a short lapse in concentration is all it takes. :(

I haven't seen the details of this case but agree with this.

It's often more dangerous with multiple adults because it's easier to think someone else is watching them.

I do go in the pool with my kids and they are late primary but I think there's a shocking statistics about the percentage of drownings that occur in very close proximity to an adult.

Drowning is rarely the dramatic splashing and sinking we see on screen. It's usually silent and easy to miss.

I've lost sight of my maybe 7yr old on a beach and taken 10 mins to find her and also been in the situation where both the adults thought the other one had the 5/6yr old until we realised and she'd been unsupervised in a waterpark for 10mins. I'm the most paranoid helicopter parent as I can't swim well myself.