Secondary drowning

[Concernedkay]

My baby is 6 months and sometimes I let him sip from a mini silicone open cup as I heard this is good practice for babies during weaning. The cup was quite full and as he was putting his head down to drink his nose also went in the water which I failed to notice at first until he shot his face up in panic and coughed and sneezed. I'm totally freaked out because of secondary drowning. This was 10 minutes ago and he seems fine now but I'm worried he may have inhaled the water as his nose definitely dipped in as well. Has this ever happened to anyone else. How likely is the possibility of secondary drowning?

Thank you

Babies don’t drown by drinking from a cup. They had a bit go down the wrong way, but they’re fine.

@MolesOnPoles thank you. Is this true even if their nose and mouth go in the water and water is breathed in?

"his nose also went in the water which I failed to notice at first until he shot his face up in panic and coughed and sneezed."

His reflexes protected him, as they should do. He's fine.

He can't breathe and swallow at the same time. There is a flap at the back of the throat, just above the windpipe. That snaps shut if there is any swallowing, and also protects the airway from accidental inhalation of liquids.

Very young babies have a protective reflex that causes them to block their nose and throat when underwater. That is why you can take tinies swimming and safely dunk them right under the water.

Please do not worry.

Pic is one of my dc swimming underwater at 5-6m. This particular dc could never quite coordinate drinking the frothed milk (babycino?) at coffee shops. They would dip their whole face in, drink some milk, and then come up for air looking very puzzled that they could not breathe because their nose was covered in foam. Of course I would wipe it away! They have very good protective reflexes.

Thank you for your responses. He did need to catch his breath for a minute as well, I don't know if he was panicked or if the water was blocking somewhere. Is there no chance water can be inhaled this way?

@WashAsDelicates wow that picture is beautiful and amazing thank you for sharing! Did your baby adapt to holding their breath straight away under water?

Extremely unlikely that he breathed anything in. The coughing and sneezing is an instinctive reaction to clear the airways. It is triggered at the very top of the airway.

We took all our dc swimming once they had had their first three sets of immunisations. I did baby swimming lessons with dc1, and felt confident to go ahead independently with all the others. Once the dc were contented in the water, and it didn't matter whether that was the first visit to the pool or the fifth visit, we started taking them underwater. They hold their breath immediately. Sometimes they continue holding their breath longer than necessary, once they have come back up to the surface, and you need to blow on their faces to trigger them to breathe. Obviously they will breathe eventually, but that is not a helpful survival skill because you don't want them to gasp. The objective when swimming with a baby (apart from the sheer fun and joy of it!) is to teach them not to panic if they fall in, to hold their breath underwater, and to come up to the surface and float on their backs, breathing normally while floating.

Isn't evolution and instinct amazing?