Should I worry after my son fell into stagnant water?

[Ljh1014]

Yesterday we were at at country park with some friends and my SW11 and two friends with their same age boys. This country park has streams and waterways lots of ducks/swans. No swimming but seen kids paddling etc. My DS and friends go paddling in clearish water less than knee high in a stream/pond that used to flow but in his heat has dried up. Being silly they went deeper until lost their footing and fell. My DS went up to his shoulders the others went fully under v murky brown water. My DS face got splashed from their submerge. Took them a good 20mins to get out due to mud etc but they did and I wiped DS down with some baby wipes but it was another 2hours til he got home and showered off. I blame myself for even letting him paddle. My husband has been so rightly cross with me about stagnant water diseases etc I just feel sick to my stomach. My DS had some scratches too so now I'm looking into all sorts of horrible nasty diseases and panicking. What can I do? Should I take him to hospital? I know I'm looking at upset stomach, infected scratches but what else? I get a bit spiralling at things like this and haven't slept or eaten since yesterday lunchtime out of stress and worry.

To ease your anxiety I'd suggest calling 111 and asking them, rather than asking strangers on Mumsnet.

Do you have Dettol or TCP in the house? I'd have had your DS shower / bathe with something like that in the water, and use germolene or similar on the scrapes. Soak lower legs in a bucket of water with antiseptic solution while he watches TV or plays on X-box, or something if you are really fretting. Keep in touch with your friend to check on her kids. My 7 year old DS fell in a canal once (DH ((now ExDH)) was on watch with DS) - he was fine. I took a jam jar of the water to show how dirty it was to DS (who was more careful with his footing in future). Weils Disease is a real thing but you may be catastrophising here.

Weils disease is rare in UK, around yes, but very unusual.
Anyone who does an organised outdoor watersport event (freshwater) will have signed a disclaimer about Weils Disease being a risk. So that includes all the people learning to paddleboard & triathlon swimmers etc.

Sea Scout or Brownies parents have to sign the same disclaimer if kids going on rivers/lakes in summer.
Those are people exposed a lot every year, they very rarely get Weils.

Anyway, am 99.9% sure that there is no prophylaxis, nothing a hospital can do before symptoms develop.

ps: and it's very treatable when people do get it. David Walliams had a bout during his charity swim on the Thames back in ... 2011? He continued his swim for (several days? a week?) after diagnosis, to finish his charity challenge.

Possibly your DH is thinking of Weills disease which can be caught from infected water. Just look out for flu-like symptons - fever, muscle aches and red eyes. If your DS or the other children do develop these, act quickly to get medical attention. But probably everything is fine OP.

Yes, you should worry if your son or his mates put his head under the water without holding his nose. Tell your friends, too.

https://www.healthywa.wa.gov.au/Articles/A_E/Amoebic-meningitis

www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-17/brain-eating-amoebas-detected-south-west-wa/103349486

I don’t think it’s routinely tested for if someone presents to the doctor or emergency with flu like symptoms. You may have to push.

There was a spate of them in the seventies in WA when pools were becoming more affordable but the science of chlorination was less well understood. Thanks to Find A Grave, I now know where my childhood friend is buried. I have spent 50 years thinking “I liked her very much. I would love to have known her as an adult”.

We did a course of diatomaceous earth just to be on the safe side after my toddler fell into a stagnant pond. He was fine.

Weil’s disease (leptospirosis) is spread via rat’s urine, so there’s a potential risk of that. But it’s not common in the U.K.

I’d keep an eye on him, and if he develops any of the symptoms, take him to the GP.

NHS Leptospirosis

As pp have mentioned, the water safety issue here is also very important, and worth talking to your son about.

AUSTRALIA

Yes there are various waterborne things which may be a risk but until there are symptoms there is no need to worry. The important thing is that if your child is ill in the next few days you call 111 and explain to them about water and take their advice.

My local river has high levels of ecoli and our local river trust has said to avoid. Maybe there is something similar for your river and you can see if there is anything to be wary of?

Exactly. Cant believe you let your son play in water after all the warnings on TV about the dangers. It could go deep very quickly. And also danger of underwater reeds and other plants.

29 patients over TEN years at one large hospital. It's that kind of rare.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1477893925001267

40 cases/yr for England and Wales typically, so that's for a population of what ... 57 million? Of whom millions have some kind of freshwater recreation or splashing every year? it's that kind of rare.
https://www.rya.org.uk/network/clubs-and-affiliates/managing-activities/safety-on-the-water/leptospirosis-and-weils-disease/

Yes you're right. I was thinking of Weils disease, carried by rats in still/slow-flowing water. Telecommunications engineers will be very aware of the need to be careful in such circumstances.

Best to get him checked out by urgent care…..doesn’t justify A & E. Call NHS 111 for proper advice just to be on the safe side

It’s that sort of complacency that leads to tragedy!

Following another tragic drowning of a teenager last week in Ireland, “…the RNLI urged families to talk about the dangers of swimming and jumping into open water as the hot weather continues.”

Every summer, there’s kids drowning in rivers and canals because they don’t understand how dangerous natural water courses can be. It might be very shallow where they went in but it sounds like it got much deeper the further along they ventured.

@BippidyBoppety

UNITED KINGDOM

metro.co.uk/2024/03/31/risk-brain-eating-amoeba-british-waters-a-concern-expert-says-20562509/

Please, for the love of god, calm down.

his two friends who were submerged: are you worried about them? How worried are their parents about them?

it’s concerning how much you’re beating yourself up about this, too. I hope you appreciate that it’s anxiety talking.

just keep an eye out for symptoms but try and relax and assume he will be fine.

What on earth will urgent care or 111 do about a child with nothing wrong and no symptoms??

I think if he was going to get a tummy upset he would have started by now as it is 24 hours since he fell over.

I am not a doctor but I think you are def over thinking this one!

You both need to stop worrying. IF he develops symptoms of illness in the next two weeks then take him to the GP and explain he's been in contact with water that MAY have been contaminated.

Likewise if any cuts or grazes become inflamed.

Otherwise he'll be fine.

Oh this is terrifying

Put some germolene on his cuts, seek medical advice in the very unlikely event he falls ill. Stop worrying about it!

The only worry here should be your husband reaction, your complete overreaction and you son out so far.

Honestly your post and reaction are more worrying than your son falling into some stagnant water.

You are catastrophising hard. Take a breath an step back.

I can't imagine my husband being cross with me for something like this. It's a fairly minor mishap but no wonder so many young people struggle with anxiety when their parents react like this.

If - and it's a big if - he becomes unwell then get medical advice and tell them what happened. Otherwise get on with your day and tell your husband to stop treating you like his employee rather his partner.

Being silly they went deeper until lost their footing and fell. My DS went up to his shoulders the others went fully under v murky brown water.

So many weird unanswered questions here. There's a lot of time between going from a dried up "less than knee-high" clear riverbed to a situation where an entire group of boys lost their footing and fall into stagnant water. Losing your footing makes it sound like someone tripped in an area where the water wasn't that deep but how can an entire group of boys accidentally trip at the same time?! At what point did the water go from being a clear running riverbed to a brackish pond?

And why didn't any of the parents see the boys going into deeper water and shout at them to get the fuck away. There must have been at least three families and 5-6 adults there? It sounds like none of the adults were watching or saw the incident happen. Did you just take their words on what happened?

Tbh it sounds like a spectacularly stupid stunt where the boys dared each other to jump into the nastiest area of the water, or they were trying to swing over with a vine or rope. There is no chance an entire group "slipped" and fell up to their shoulders, even if they were wading in holding hands which no 11 year old woudl be caught dead doing. If they were walking separately, the rest would have stopped the moment the first one fell into the water.

When boys muck in water about with zero supervision from adults, it could easily become a situation that ends seriously tragically.

Naeglaria is absolutely terrifying due it being almost universally fatal as it causes PAM. However, it is incredibly rare, the article itself says there have been 157 documented cases in 40 odd years in the US and it is even rarer in the UK. Awful illness, yes absolutely, but the risk of actually catching it is vanishingly small.