To share this information...Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning

[MrsNextDoor]

gcaptain.com/drowning/?10981#.VYIBV9LBzGc

I just came across it and it both horrified me and amazed me. It's about what happens when someone is drowning...about how they don't actually flail and splash...and how children can drown in crowded water feet from people who aren't even aware!

Invaluable stuff.

My sister almost drowned aged 7 on holiday, in a swimming pool filled with others, right next to me and our brother. She wasn't flailing or kicking, her arms just floated up to the top.
She was only saved when my uncle spotted her and dived in and got her out.
She had tried to follow some older children, and the pool had a steep decline into the deep end, and she stepped off the shallow pool floor and couldn't stand.
She said afterwards she had tried to swim at first but then began to feel peaceful. It was awful and always made me determined my children would know how to swim.

A worthwhile reminder, particularly as summer comes in full swing and so many of our dc will be in swimming pools.

When I was about 9 I was on holiday in Spain, I noticed a girl in the pool near the edge. I thought she was grinning, but she was drowning.

Fortnately there was a happy ending to that episode and everyone thought was a little hero as I reached down and grabbed her arm.

It could have so easily ended in tragedy

Very interesting.
Thankfully I have never witnessed a drowning, but had no idea that it could be so difficult to spot. Will have it in mind.

Drowning is quiet. The film version is irresponsible at best. Bathing children, ahh. Don't answer the damn phone, stay with the dc!!

Chwat - I have chills.

Bumping. This usually comes up in Chat every year but hasn't yet. ITt is vital. Thanks OP

Good bump Charity - let's do it again tomorrow.

Also wanted to add DRY DROWNING or SECONDARY DROWNING.

Here's a link: www.webmd.com/children/features/secondary-drowning-dry-drowning

Which essentially means that even after your children are done swimming, and it could be a couple of days later, they can still drown.

PLEASE read up on the symptoms and keep an eye out for it.

Thanks sykadelic. Very useful link.

Scares the pants off you though, you just feel like never taking the dc swimming ever again :( (obviously counterproductive there!- they must learn!)

Always useful to keep this info on the radar.

My DSis used to make her dc sing in the bath. At five years old, so when she was folding in the next room, she knew they were fine. Good tip, I thought.

FastWindow Doesn't it just!

I actually know someone who spotted the symptoms in time because of a similar link, which is why I mention it. I'd never heard of it until then. The more people that are aware the better.

Scarier still, doesn't just mean swimming, it could be any time water is inhaled, including in the shower/bath etc

Also worth mentioning it's very rare.

Bumping ....i watched a video of someone in a mermaid costume someone had posted on FB ...the kid could't surface . Its scary and I live in a water based city and No1 priority are swimming lessons ...MIL can't swim and won't wear a life jacket either when we go in a small boat. I have clearly said that if anything happens I will be saving my kids first.......

Thankyou MrsNextDoor.

THanks for this- and TBH it was something I had always suspected. I used to have nightmares about my children drowning at a local leisure pool. THe waves were so high, the water so deep and children crammed into the area with poor supervision. I would stick to my kids like glue the few times we did venture in.
THankfully the pool closed permanently due to safety issues.

Bump.

This was an annual topic on MN, but I haven't spotted it for a couple of years.

It's an important one to know about.

Glad to see this again - I wish it could be a permanent sticky on the sidebar, along with "how to spot if your child has a neuroblastoma through photos".

I have a friend here in Australia whose DS nearly died like this too - they'd been swimming, she'd got all the kids out of the pool, but while she was changing the youngest 2, her DS stepped off the edge back in. Not a splash, not a sound - she turned around to look for him, couldn't see him, went up to the edge and he was staring up at her silently from under the water. She hauled him out immediately and he was fine, but OMG.

I'm so grateful to whomever posted those links the first time - it's a constant worry for me but as a result I have made sure that both DSs have swimming lessons from a young age. DS1 (7) can now swim effectively, if not beautifully; and DS2 (2) will be starting proper lessons in September, he can swim around on a noodle but needs to start the real stuff when he's 3.

Bumping again....I just found it so horrifying and we're about to move to the coast in Australia...one of my DC at age 10 is not a strong swimmer at all...this has made me think that I need to get her some one to one lessons booked asap.

Thanks- I never knew this.

Thanks - good information.

Forgive the Daily Mail link, but this is a very sad story about an adult dying of secondary drowning, hours after inhaling water.

secondary drowning

Thanks for sharing links, I'd never even heard of secondary drowning before! How awful

I never knew anything about second hand drowning
Or that drowning wasn't like you see on TV with limbs thrashing about. Good info.