Kids swimming and drowning..

[runforyourdog]

I keep seeing all these worrying posts about kids drowning and how you need to watch them every second..

I was just wondering, at what stage / age are kids able to be left to get on with it without risk of drowning?

Is it kids who can't swim who drown or when they get injured or get tired?

It's also advisable to always wear a red/orange costume as it makes you far more visible in the water.
I've never understood why kids wetsuits are dark blue, black or teal

Well I Dont think you can be too careful really.The series "saving lives at sea" shows how a lovely trip to the beach, can go horribly wrong in a few seconds. Recently a dad and his daughter were dragged out to sea by a rip tide .The dad held on to his daughter for around an hour! Sea conditions made it hard for the lifeboat to see them. They were very very lucky to alive!

My sister and I were allowed in the pool alone but within sight of parents at age 6, and then when we went to Disney world aged 8/9 we were allowed to go off by ourselves at the water parks, as long as we stayed together. We were both fantastic swimmers, swam for our local team, so parents had no worries about us not being able to swim! As a mum myself now I don't know how they did let us! I'd be a nervous wreck! This was 20 years ago though.

It depends on so many factors, but basically I wouldn't let a child out of my sight in water at least until the age of 13 or 14, and then only if they're good swimmers, there's a lifeguard around, and no one is messing about. To be honest, DH and I don't generally swim alone either; on holiday recently he wanted to swim so I came down to the poolside with him (no lifeguard) and sat and read, just on the off chance that something happened.

A 7 year old who can swim well would probably be ok in an Olympic pool with no one else around to make waves etc (obviously with someone watching); they could easily get in trouble very quickly in a pool in the garden with other kids jumping about and potentially pushing them under.

The open sea, rivers and lakes are a whole other ball game too.

Carbon black is added to neoprene to increase it's strength and provide higher UV protection. New technology has allowed colour to be used but black lasts longer. Wetsuits now mostly are black with some coloured panels.

Also, when underwater, colours disappear. Suits just look grey. Red looks grey after about 10 feet. Pink goes grey early. Green goes grey a bit deeper. Blue lasts the longest up to a couple hundred feet. But if you're scuba diving, colour in the suits doesn't help children be seen. They all look grey underwater anyway.

I have teen (one nearly adult) children and I still hang about the pool like a bad smell! They fool around, pushing each other in and jumping in etc and I worry that one will accidentally knock themselves unconscious on the side of the pool and drown. Probably really silly, I know, but I couldn’t live with myself otherwise! So with smalls like yours, I would be, at the very least, sitting on the edge with feet dangling in the water ready to leap into action.

lots of reasons

Big one is they Can’t swim or know how to float and parents haven’t taught them pool saftey or what to do when they’re in trouble.
Inflatable armbands don’t teach kids how to float and are a menace imo. Stick to kick boards and basic water safety in the pool.

Cold water shock. jumping into colder water that’s a big shock to anyone especially on smaller children. Can happen in unheated swimming pools but is much more dangerous in quarries, lakes and rivers and also ocean so you shouldn’t encourage kids to jump straight into unheated pools without close supervision.

a lot of parents also don’t put their kids in lifejackets when near the water. When DC was very little we went crab fishing off a harbour wall, a regular thing given we live near the coast. DC had to fish in a luminous orange life jacket just in case they fell in. Partner at the time got one for me and he was awesome (having grown up in a boat) about water saftey around kids.

DC thought nothing of it and would grab their ‘beach jacket’ whenever we went fishing.

it was other people who thought we were odd. I’ve had looks, comments and told I’m a ‘spoilsport’ or OTT for being conscious about water safety. It’s maddening.

now we have a different kind of stupidity as there’s a local seal and parents are taking their kids out to see this ‘socialised’ seal that’s still a very dangerous wild animal.

I'd say at 5 and 7 unless it's your own pool and there is no-one else there, I'd be in the water with them at all time

imo you need to be more on the ball when it’s your own pool - children can get complacent very quickly.

I thought I was the only one I tie my DS to me with an old toddler harness when we crab fish, my DF was a swimming champion and he's always drummed into us water safety, in fact we all our life jackets on before even stepping on the jetty to go on his boat.

My eldest 2 are young teens and are extremely good swimmers still wouldn't trust them in fact they had to pull a swimmer out at their swimming club a while back (DD wasn't there it was the older teens) These are teens who train 4 times a week for several hours at a time.

My daughter nearly drowned in a swimming lesson. She was 7.

There was a life guard and instructor supposedly watching her.

Absolutely terrifying to watch from the viewing area where they couldn’t hear us shout.

There is not a set age. You must judge this based on their ability to swim and the type of water they are going into.

And yes you do need to look out for children every second.

I live near a river and often swim in it. Loads of kids jumping off bridges/hanging onto wires etc really surprises me there are not considerably more deaths than there already are, yesterday afternoon I was swimming in the Thames near Hampton Court. Every bridge had hordes of teenage boys jumping off. Shortly after we got out predictable sirens etc -yep one of them drowned. But reported in that nearly mouth BBC way ‘entered the water to cool off etc’ not just ‘jumped in like complete numpty’ so endless bleating calls for ‘more signage’ ‘raise awareness’..

3 teenage boys have drowned this weekend, in lakes/rivers. Those are the ones I heard on the news. Possibly more.
Tragic but predictable and always seems to be boys x

My youngest is 10 and I’m still a bit conflicted about how closely to supervise him by the pool when we go on holiday next week. He can swim but isn’t what I’d call a strong swimmer.
obv wouldn’t let him in the sea alone.

I completely agree that blanket advice not to swim in inviting-looking bodies of water is unhelpful. Surely it would be better to make some of our lakes etc safe and affordable to swim in, then people wouldn’t be so attracted to dangerous places. I’ve been thinking about it a lot this week. We’ve got a couple of those Liquid Leisure places around us. Lake water sports, swimming, would be lovely for families to spend time at a “beach” with water access. But it’s SO expensive when, IMO, it should be a community facility (like in other countries). What’s stopping us, do you think?

People underestimate the power of the water. Even for very strong swimmers lakes, rivers and the sea can get you into difficulty very quickly. You can absolutely see the appeal of jumping in for a swim or to cool off but unfortunately there isn't much education around the dangers of doing so. Every time the weather heats up we sadly get these, they're not all being reckless but being naieve. Water safety when we live on an island should be a priority.

There are- wild swimming here is around £2, but its probably not overly appealing to teenage boys who want to have a play about. We also have disrupted eco systems enough by polluting and building over water ways i don't think it would be overly positive. As people are going to do it anyway I agree some knowledge on what to do if get into trouble, who to call and to never go out alone etc would be useful.

A child of eight had a near miss at my daughter' birthday party because she couldn't swim. Parents had accepted the invite, sent her along (by herself) and not mentioned this fairly crucial point.

Swimming in lakes, rivers and the sea comes with inherent risks that a lot of people don't understand. Jumping into a cold river with a strong current would catch out even a competent swimmer.

I agree that making it very clear which bodies of water are safe (and when), educating and making it accessible would be a positive step, as well as having safety measures like life guards.

There are a few places near me where it's cheap or free to access these areas and is great. It's lovely to see the paddle boarders and swimmers out and my dc love getting to splash about in the shallower areas.

In pools my dc aren't allowed out of my sight and easy reach. Dd7 is a strong swimmer and confident (probably more so than an average 7yo), can tread water/float as well as plenty of strokes, dive etc but I wouldn't let her go unsupervised. Ds2 is obviously not a strong swimmer but has a vest or armbands, woggle and stays with me or dh. Same rules for the paddling pool, one slip when we aren't watching could be fatal.

From what I have been delivering to schools in the last few weeks, there are still a frightening number of children who believe they are invincible.

Strong swimmers are more likely to get into trouble/drown as they're more likely to take risks and get out of depth. Strong swimmers are no match for cold water shock/strong currents etc

Boys are more likely to drown, particularly those from 14 to 18.

I nearly drowned in the sea when I was a child, because as a strong swimmer I swam out too far and was carried by the current. Took sheer luck to swim parallel to the beach and eventually got back to my sunbathing parents who'd not noticed I'd gone. It was the 70s, but it's still happening now

I think that's the think with teenagers- they don't want to be around other people. Then they find other places and do daft things. Like they always have. I live near an estuary, but it's so dangerous even teenagers won't go in it, thankfully. And growing up near quarry pools and old mill pools, we were all aware of people who had drowned.

You could make safe places, outdoors, for teens to go and swim, but then those places would be invaded by families, so teens would still find other places to go, because that's what they do.

Dh saved a young girl from nearly drowning a few years ago. She was in the campsite swimming pool with her parents and younger brother and was in fact a good swimmer.

However, she was walking around the shallow end giving her brother a piggy back and eventually started getting deeper and deeper to make him laugh. She ended up being just out of her depth so her mouth and nose were under water but because she was carrying her brother she couldn’t lift herself high enough to breathe. He was laughing and shouting so her parents hadn’t noticed.

As she came near us dh saw the look of terror in her eyes and picked her up. She took a huge gasp of air and burst into tears. It was frightening as to how easily you can get into difficulty without anyone noticing, like the video called not waving but drowning…

She played a lot with our ds after that and she was a really good swimmer but simply got into trouble at that point.

^^ This.

I'm a very strong, competent swimmer. In my 50's now but as a child/teen swam competitively. I'm also pretty fearless in the water (done surfing in big waves etc in my time)

Last summer I nearly drowned. Weird reed type things got wrapped around my legs and felt like I was being pulled under. It only takes one thing to go wrong.

I don't think anyone (adult or child) should be swimming unsupervised. Age 5 and 7 absolutely not you need to be right there with them. In a pool, whilst people are having fun, is probably the worst time to think they're safe.

I was taken by strong crew to on holiday in the Maldives. I'm a strong swimmer and was taught professionally and swam as an adult regularly.

The current took me and I couldn't get back to the group. It was so scary being powerless like that.

Luckily a local spotted me and came out and got me back. He was tiny but super strong From then on for that holiday i swam in a life jacket even tho I looked like a tit

Every year it makes me so sad to hear of teens drowning but every heatwave is the same.

I wouldn't worry so much about a pool tho it can still happen but I feel 8 is a little young if the pool is busy as little ones can easily get knocked or trapped under bigger kids.

You could make safe places, outdoors, for teens to go and swim, but then those places would be invaded by families, so teens would still find other places to go, because that's what they do.

So, what, you just don't bother to make safe outdoor swimming places? I think that's a really weird attitude.