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.

For them to do what exactly?

OP one of my children goes in a river every week with Sea Scouts and has an excellent time. I am more worried by the lack of water safety in your post than anything else.

You've bathed him and presumably washed any cuts or grazes. Watch out for any gastric symptoms, infections to healing cuts, flu-like symptoms, and if any of those come up in the next couple of days, seek medical advice, and mention he's been in stagnant water. If there were any cuts and his tetanus jabs aren't up-to-date, I might ask for a booster. But mostly, I'd rely on his immune system doing its job.

I grew up on a farm. Mum made sure we had up-to-date tetanus jabs. She made sure we had a good idea about water safety, the risk of rusty nails, unknown chemicals, poisonous plants, etc. But we were growing up in an environment full of potentially fatal hazards - by 11, we were expected to be able to risk assess if we went out playing. (I loved playing in the stream.)

Its very unlikely, the only real risk was drowning and that didn't happen
Step away from the Internet for a bit and try to chill out, if you can't then you need to try and get some help as your response to this non event is disproportionate

Edit - photo of where the entered with steps and roughly where they ended up near bridge. Water was still higher lake/pond not flowing due to heat.

I just want to thank everyone for all comments. I do catastrophise frequently about illness/injury and worst case scenarios. I want therapy for this but cost is high so I mostly manage it myself. I thought I was giving him a day of fun with his friends being in nature but hadn't considered all the risks until they were pointes out to me. I know some are rare and unlikely but some are also highly likely so want to be aware in case. I was never more than a riverbank away at any time and my son can swims competitively so risks were lowish I thought like I said was just meant to be a paddle about. I will be aware,, refer back to this if he develops any illness or symptoms and get checked out if he does. Thank you for all advice and also understanding I will try to take a breath. Any further advisor comments still welcome

Wow, I would have laughed ! Got him home, shower, rinse off clothes & forgotten about the whole thing. ...... he is 11, not 4 months old.
IMO they were just boys being boys outside, as opposed to be on their devices. Let them live

You're catastrophising! He didn't actually fall in did he? And I agree your husband shouldn't be angry. It's just a very minor incident. I am sure your son will have no ill effects.

I am very glad everything is okay so far but agree with several others - this is a good opportunity for a refresher for both of you on water safety. Brownish standing water that you can't get to easily with 3 silly boys tripping each other up is not a great combination. I think you need to just think about how to avoid this in future - I wouldn't worry as much as others here about diseases, but I do worry a lot about water safety. It's very different to swim competitively in a pool and to save yourself from an unexpectedly deep river with other children possibly grabbing onto you, sticks, debris, etc. etc. If it took that long for them to get out to you, it was too far away for you to get to them as well.

I hope all the boys are okay and that your husband stops being so awful about it. Parenting is filled with moments you might want to take back but blaming each other for mistakes is a terrible thing to do. I'm sure he's had his moments as well and pointing the finger isn't helpful.

I think they’ll be fine ! My 11 year old would be freaking you out about brain eating Ebomas or whatever they’re called ! These things are super super rare

Yes sorry your husband is a twat OP. He'll be fine.

There's a miniscule chance he might get a bit sick but It's just so unlikely if he didn't swallow anything. Kids fall into minging water all the time! I am sure I swam about in what could possibly be classed as sewage several times as a kid and I never got as much as an upset stomach.

My kids literally live in rivers all summer. We have one at the bottom of the garden and my 8 year old and his friends were splashing around in it last weekend (under my supervision). They’ll most likely be fine. It doesn’t matter if water is stagnant or not, but what sort of organic matter has entered it upstream from sewage discharge or agricultural run off. But honestly, my kids spend all summer in rivers and I’ve also been swimming in them for years and years, head fully under, and none of us have ever been sick. I agree though that I’d be much more concerned with drowning and water safety.

i would take him to the hospital, my bf was near water like that and got explosive diarrhea…
but now that i’m thinking about it maybe it was the undercooked chicken he ate the night before 🤔

How will you react when he really gets into trouble.