Drowning Alert

While swimming at a club with my friends recently, they persuaded me to dive at the deep end of the pool. I flatly refused. This stirred a heated conversation that went beyond my fears to a discussion on drowning and other water accident ordeals. The stories were really sad. They brought back fresh memories of an incident near Burnt Forest, where three primary school children and an elderly man drowned in a quarry abandoned by a construction company. I also recounted two other occurrences where a child’s body was discovered two days after drowning in a swimming pool at a school in Eastland’s, Nairobi, and another at a Nairobi slum where an infant, attracted by his shadows on the surface of water stored in a bucket, fell into the water and drowned.

Drowning may be on its way to becoming one of the top ten causes of death for children under the age of 12 years in Kenya, if a research by Mrs. Carolyn Ogutu, a Masters student in Security Studies at one of our local universities, is anything to go by.

According to Mrs. Ogutu, although many cases go unreported, children drown almost daily in rivers, lakes, swimming pools, water pans and quarries. Toddlers may drown in the bathtub, a bucket or basin of water. Therefore, water safety is essential and especially critical if you have babies or toddlers in your home. You need to safeguard them whenever they are in contact with water. This is because; children tend to be attracted to the sparkling on water surfaces.

You also need to realise that drowning can take place in a split of a second. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be a complete submersion of the body. It may take just as little as 30mm of water with a face in it. For that reason, you need to ensure children are under your watchful eye or that of another adult in and outside the house at all times.

Risk factors

Some of the common occurrences that may lead to drowning include:

» Lack of supervision when your children are near water » Failing to wear life jackets or floaters when travelling in a boat or swimming respectively

» Submersion by another person or child forcibly or playfully » Leaving your child to sit in a bathtub alone

» Leaving buckets and basins of water uncovered/exposed Illnesses of any kind or even seizures

According to keepchildrensafe.com, you can prevent drowning by:

» Ensuring your children are under watch while in the bathtub, swimming or even playing around water. Avoid distractions such as reading or even drinking.

» Taking your children to swimming pools where you are sure they have lifeguards

» Being a good swimmer yourself. That way, you may come in handy when the lifeguard is far away or busy attending to other swimmers

» Acquire basic knowledge on cardiopulmonary resuscitation

You may however want to consider the following specifics in order to reduce the risk of your children drowning.

Bathrooms

This is one area where you can never miss to find water stored especially during these times of water rationing. It is advisable therefore to always ensure the bathroom door is locked so that your baby does not crawl and sneak into the room.

In case you are in the middle of bathing your baby and something else calls for your attention, maybe a phone call or knock on the door, never leave your baby on the bathtub. Instead, wrap him/her in the towel and bring him/her with you. Ensure that:

You drain water from the bathtub or basin as soon as you finish with it.
Keep your toilet seat closed with its lid Never leave your child unattended to—especially when they are at that age of crawling and learning to stand.

Around swimming pools:

» Fence the pool and install a lockable gate that can only be opened by an adult.

» Ensure your children go to the pool under an adult supervision at all times.

» Avoid carrying any toys to the pool side as children may get distracted when playing with them.

» Ensure you have floating devices like tubes and floaters around the pool.

» You can formulate your own pool rules that should be followed by everyone in your home.

» If you live around natural water bodies like rivers, water pan, quarries and the like:

» Ensure that your children are in the company of an adult when near such bodies.

» Enlighten your children on the dangers of the water bodies and keep repeating it to them.

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