Leaving them in the bath while you go to another room..........

[swiperfox]

Just bathed dd who is 3.5. Leaving the bathroom for anything fills me with fear - you always hear the stories about 'but i was only gone for a second' However ds was screaming (11 months) so i had to run out to give him his bottle and put him into his chair.
I made dd sing 'twinkle twinkle' as loud as she could until i came back lol that way i could always hear her and if she stopped i could run!

What age do you start leaving them for a second but know they'll generally be ok?

ITU/ICU is an intensive care unit in a hospital - it is here where they care for a child that has been resuscitated. Very young children have a gasp reflex which means that they inhale sharply when shocked - for example when they fall into water.

Here's the latest stats from ROSPA I'm not a statistician but I conclude that the info given means that five under 5's drowned at home, excluding garden water-feature drownings. As a child I had a near-miss so have been pretty cautious and haven't left them alone until they were 7/8-ish. But even so, the unexpected can happen. I once left sitting-up dd in the baby bath on the floor while I went to get a towel. When I got back, she'd managed to lean over and had my plugged in hairdrier in her wet hands.

zebra, many swimming pools will only let under fives into the pool if you have one adult per child. I think this is now the recommended ratio.

I go swimming alot with my kids and I would be appalled if I saw any child under 3 under the water for 5 seconds, especially if it was a baby. 5 seconds is a long time if you count it. My three year old (who can't swim) will dive under water but if he was under for more than 2 seconds I would drag him up.

I'm not a doctor but I imagine that in a few seconds a baby/small child could fill their lungs - I think a lot of drownings in the bath (reading that ROSPA site that suedonim posted) are those that are left for a minute or more also I imagine, those that bump their heads in the process.

Having said that, I leave my 3 and 4 year old together but I'm only in the next room and I can see them and hear them from where I am.

I wouldn't leave my two in the bath and they are 3.9 years

Never thought about it though, just something I have always done. Never crossed my mind to leave them. I would be too scared.

Must admit, I am very suprised that some leave such young children/Toddlers. But each to their own............

And no, I am FAR FAR FAR from being a good Mum!!!

Zebra, I read something ages ago which explained the reason children drown so quickly and in such a small amount of water. When adults inhale water they know to spit, cough or snort the water out, but a child under the age of 5 is unable to do this. They inhale with the shock, then continue inhaling. Water enters the lungs and within seconds the child is unconscious. Additionally, while an adult drowning will splash around, scream, call for help, and generally make noise, a child will drown silently because they lose consciousness so quickly, so you may not even been alerted by noise to the fact that your child is in trouble.

My dd is almost 4, and has never been left in the bath on her own. Not because I'm a perfect mummy because heaven knows I'm not, but because I consider that the risk is too great.

I do leave mine for about a minute, but probably shouldn't. will be more careful after reading having read this thread!

But I have seen toddlers go under the water for 1-3 seconds & thrash around & come up sputtering. They obviously haven't read the bit about the shock inhale reflex....

Having had a swimming pool accident with my dd when she was 2.6 yo and then watching my ds fall backwards under the bath water at 18 mo for no reason what so ever I will never leave them alone. I just thank god I was there on both ocassions.

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The only safe distance to be from a toddler in a bath is within arms reach.

But then, as parents, we all have to decide for ourselves what are the acceptable and unacceptable risks.

I would not trust a young child close to a busy road if I was not within grabbing distance.......

Before he was 2yo DS used to jump in the swimming pool (with floats on) & come back to the surface after 1-2 seconds... no shock-inhale there. Come to think of it, I've known a fair few 3yo's who could swim underwater for 5-20 seconds, no problem, no shock-inhale there...
I had it in my head that official advice was not leaving them alone in the bath before 3yo, but to be honest, I can't find any official type age guidelines, now. Does anyone know? Gotta run, or I'd read this thread better!

I nearly drowned when I was 2yo, I was spotted floating bottom up, got pulled out, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation -- but that was in the sea.

One of my cousins drowned at the age of 18 months -- but that was in a swimming pool.

I don't feel personally attacked, I just perceive the risk differently.

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Swimming is a diffent situation though; the child is presumably expecting to hit the water so there isn't the shock that there might be if the child has slipped under water in the bath.

dh and i have just completed a blazing row about this as I had to pop out for 10minutes and came back to find dd (2 1/2) in the bath alone whilst he was drilling upsatairs ffs!

I can't forgive him.

I take it back - dh had left ds with her (He's usually a very responsible 12 year old) and he's just confessed to leaving her alone.

It's just one of the many areas of parenting where different people perceive the risks differently.
I think it's similar to the question of letting them sleep in their own room from a young age or following the advice to let them sleep in your bedroom.
Personally I always feel that I'd rather be too cautious than to find myself in a situation where I could never, ever forgive myself for allowing something awful to happen by not being cautious enough.