With the summer comes hot days, with hot days comes the need to cool off, with the need to cool off comes POOLS, with pools comes water, with water comes the potential for a drowning.
Earlier this summer my family was having a pool day with our favorite neighbors. Even though their babies are four legged furry babies, they always do such a great job of accommodating our two legged, walking, talking, tantrum throwing, baby. We were playing in the pool all having a great time, and Lincoln was playing on their wet-deck. The wet-deck is only about 9 inches deep and a fairly large area. Within seconds Lincoln fell off the wet-deck and into the deeper section of the pool. I was probably 4 feet away and my husband, Wesley was about the same distance but in the actual pool. Even though we were so close, being in the water made it take extra long to get to Lincoln. He only sunk a couple of feet underwater, but by the time Wesley got to him and pulled him up out of the water, he had already breathed in water and came up choking, gasping, with the most scared little look on his wet face ever! This episode scared the CRAP out of us! Wesley couldn’t understand why Lincoln’s “survival instincts” didn’t kick in. I explained to Wesley that Lincoln has no instincts, LOL! In his tiny world we are his instincts.
Our very first thought after this episode was our son needs swim lessons!! Our MY second thought was to start googling drowning. Of course I started searching this after I had put Lincoln down for the night…. BIG MISTAKE so I found out! Okay so get this… did YOU know that people can actually drown outside of water after they’ve had an “almost” drowning moment??? Crazy, right?! It’s called dry drowning or secondary drowning.
Secondary Drowning: Secondary drowning is a condition where water, or other fluids, has entered the lungs but the person may be conscious and not fully aware of what has occurred. This also sometimes happens with a near drowning victim. That is, prior to being pulled out of the water they inhale fluid into their lungs.
Here are some things to look for in a dry or secondary drowning case.
- Coughing
- Trouble breathing
- Pain in the lungs or chest
- Drowsiness
Even though a person may appear seemingly okay after a near-drowning experience, it’s always safest to monitor the person to ensure they have no secondary drowning symptoms and if they do, immediately take the person to the emergency room. I didn’t know anything about secondary drowning prior to putting Lincoln to bed and I was obviously paranoid. I mean symptom number 4 is drowsiness!!! But at age 2, our son always seems tired and cranky around 7 pm so this was normal in my book.
This story has a happy ending, as I’m happy to report Lincoln was just fine. I think mommy and daddy were more traumatized than Lincoln. We did, however, start swim lessons through the YMCA 2 days later. Swim lessons are a total disaster, but that story is better saved for a different blog day 🙂
Read about Johnny, a secondary drowning victim, here.
Poll time: When did you start swim lessons for your little one? I’ve heard an ARRAY of answers and am still searching for that “perfect” time.
That is SO scary!! I debated swimming lessons for Hudson starting at birth! Since we live on the lake, we are ALWAYS near water and/or on a boat. When it came down to it, though, it was better for us to just teach him water safety (i.e. always wear a life jacket near water, be with an adult, etc.) at that age. We tried lessons last summer (age 4), and after 8 lessons he didn’t learn much of anything. I attribute that to the instructor, but also that he wasn’t really ready. This summer (age 5) we did 8 weeks of lessons, 4 days per week at the city pool. Within the first 2 days he was swimming underwater, holding his breath, etc. He is an excellent swimmer, I’m pleased to report, and I think it had a lot to do with him being ready. I’d watch for Lincoln’s signs and just keep water time safe and fun for now.
Wesley took his first swim lessons at 6 months. He learned to hold his breath and kick kick kick. Due to the time of birth Cody took lessons at 9 months.
With Wesley and Cody taking swim lessons I knew they couldn’t swim that young but I felt comfortable they could come up out o the water which could give me time to get to them
My older two boys took swim lessons at Nitro, then their Grandpa helped more at his pool. Porter started this year at 3 at Emler and I cannot say enough great things about the experience and his progress. He was only there 2 weeks and was able to swim under water. I have him signed up for their fall session so that he doesn’t regress over the fall/spring.
I tried to start Trent this summer at Emler but the hubs said to wait. I really want to do it this fall/spring so that he is ready for this next summer when I have an infant to tend to too. Not that I’ll let him out of my sight for a second, but it’ll make me feel better that he’s prepared.