international water safety day

Fun fact: Elephants can swim up to twenty miles a day. They use their trunk as a snorkel.

The most swimming I do is about 500 yards, which is about 46 lengths in my pool. So an elephant would have to swim 3200 lengths in my pool for his daily exercise routine.

I won’t talk about the elephant in the pool anymore, but I would like to tell you about one of my students in the pool the other day.

He’s going to be three years old in a couple of months and loves to retrieve sinkable objects from the bottom in the shallow end. His favorite sinkable objects are the torpedoes or as he refers to them, “potatoes.” Too cute.

INTERNATIONAL WATER SAFETY DAY MAY 15!
Striving to make a planet that’s 70% water, 100% water safe.

International water safety day is a global team effort to bring as much awareness of the statistics of drowning to the general population. And to educate children and adults on how to be safe in, on and around water.

According to the World Health Organization, 372,000 people lose their lives to drowning each year. So that means that every hour of every day more than 40 lives are lost worldwide.

And these figures do not include data from 66 countries. Nor do they include intentional drowning deaths (suicide or homicide), cataclysms or water transport incidents.

Therefore if all types of drownings and all countries were represented, it is suggested that the WHO estimated drowning rate would multiply by four or five times.

And the most vulnerable are children ages 1 to 4 years, followed by children ages 5 to 14 years.

Drowning can take place in any body of water from as little as 2 inches of water in a bathtub, bucket or toilet to a landscape water feature, pool, pond, river, lake or ocean just to name a few.

91% of global drowning deaths occur in low and middle-income countries. The main reasons are:

• Lack of physical barriers between water sources and children
• And lack of adult supervision so
• Uncovered or unprotected water supplies and lack of safe water crossings
• Also a lack of water safety awareness
• And traveling on water, especially on overcrowded or poorly maintained vessels
• Finally, flood disasters, whether from extreme rainfall, storm surges, tsunamis or cyclones

So keep you and your family safe around water. Make sure to:

• Always swim in a lifeguarded area. so
• And always swim with a buddy, never swim alone.
• Learn swimming and water safety survival skills.
• Provide close and constant attention to children you are supervising in or near water.
• Children, inexperienced swimmers, and boaters should wear U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jackets.
• Provide adequate barriers around swimming pools, spas, and landscape water features.
• Also, know what to do in an emergency. If a child is missing, check the water first.
• And know when to call 911 and have easy access to reaching or throwing equipment, a cell phone, life jackets and a first aid kit.

Enroll in American Red Cross home pool safety to keep you and your family safe around water.

And for more information on preventing accidents to keep you and your family safe, get the free water safety app. For the iTunes app store click here and for Google Play click here.

To participate in International Water Safety Day, simply share this post with as many people as you can on your favorite social media platform(s).

The more people we can reach, the closer we get to make our planet 100% water safe.so

Thank you for your participation.so

Love the water, so
Tessa so

P.S. Get the FREE water safety app to help ensure your family stays safe in, on and around the water. It includes kid-friendly videos and quizzes. Search the iTunes app store for Swim by American Red Cross or click here. For Google Play you can use the same search parameters or click here. It provides the latest in water safety guidance to help ensure your family stays safe in, on and around the water.

P.P.S. To start your child on the path to becoming water safe, click here. so

Do life jackets prevent drowning? so

My son received his first college acceptance letter recently. Yayyyy!!! I’m so happy for him. It also means that he’s leaving home in less than five months. Nooooo!!!! It can’t be. I’m going to miss him so much.

On to the subject at hand.

Do life jackets prevent drowning?

Yes, if worn. A mother I know from my former gymnastics instructor life contacted me the other day to enroll her children in swim lessons as soon as possible.

The reason for the urgency you might ask? A year ago the mother’s daughter had a near drowning experience. For full details, you can click here.

Just the other day, virtually the same thing happened to her son. Here’s what she wrote. (The names have been omitted):

When I spoke to her on the phone, she filled in the gaps. Here’s what she told me. (The names have been changed):

Before letting her son, John out, Susan (John’s mom) made sure that he was wearing his life jacket since the pool at their rental complex is six feet from her front door and not surrounded by a fence.

Susan’s next door neighbors (a father and daughter) were out by the pool, and the father, we’ll refer to him as Tom said that he would watch the children.

Tom was watering plants and supposedly keeping an eye on the kids.

Susan went about her business while periodically looking out her window to make sure everything was okay.

Well the last time she looked, John was in the pool sans life jacket and floating facedown.

She bolted out the door and pulled him to safety. Thankfully he fully recovered.

It turned out that John had taken off his life jacket. Something that Susan did not know he could do.

Tom’s daughter, who is five years old, let’s call her Tiffany had a bike with training wheels. Well, John decided to ride it after taking off his life jacket and ended up in the pool with the bike in tow.

Virtually the same scenario that happened a year ago with Susan’s daughter.

John told his mother that Tiffany pushed him in the pool.

John rides Tiffany’s bike often. Tiffany likes to give him a gentle push as he takes corners around the pool since he slows down at that point.

So it’s entirely possible Tiffany’s gentle push helped him wind up in the pool.

Susan explained that when she arrived at the scene in rescue mode, Tiffany was standing there stunned looking at John floating. Just stood there in silence. Probably in shock.

You might be wondering why didn’t Tom see any of this? Well, he was watering plants and not actively watching the children.

Pretty much anything can go unnoticed if there is no one actively watching, especially drowning.

Drowning is silent. Click here to see just what I mean. so

Susan told me that her son always asks for his life jacket now before heading out the door. He never did that before.

Thank goodness John is alive and well and will probably think twice before removing his life jacket again.

To answer the original question in more depth.

Yes, life jackets do prevent drowning. In some cases, however, if someone gets hit in the head and lands in the water face down then the life jacket serves no purpose.

There are many different types of life jackets, and some of them automatically turn the person so that they’re facing up.

So in the case of the unconscious person, he would eventually wake up and be able to swim to safety or depending on the circumstances be hopefully found by a rescue crew.

Even if your child is wearing a life jacket, it is essential to provide close and constant supervision.

Thank you, Susan (you know who you are), for sharing your story. The more people that we can reach with stories like this, the more lives we can save. So please, if you’ve had a similar experience, I would love to hear from you.

Love the water, do life jackets prevent drowning?
Tessa do life jackets prevent drowning?

P.S. Get the FREE water safety app to help ensure your family stays safe in, on and around the water. It includes kid-friendly videos and quizzes. Search the iTunes app store for Swim by American Red Cross or click here. For Google Play you can use the same search parameters or click here. It provides the latest in water safety guidance to help ensure your family stays safe in, on and around the water.

P.P.S. To start your child on the path to becoming water safe, click here. so

fence it in so

I had the best time ever this past weekend watching my son in his high school’s musical, called High School Musical (I know – it’s a little redundant). He killed it. I’ve never been more proud.

I just live for this stuff. It’s the best part of being a parent. And as parents, we love our children more than anything in the world and would do anything to protect them. I’m sure you couldn’t agree more.

Unfortunately, you can’t always be there to protect them every step of the way, but when you can, you establish certain safeguards to prevent accidents.

And if you read last week’s email, then you would know that I shared a true story about a family that has their daughter enrolled in swimming lessons with me.

In short, the 19-month-old daughter was seconds away from taking a plunge in the backyard pool, and it almost went unnoticed. For the full story, click here.

Well, there’s a part 2 to this relevant saga. With the names omitted, here’s what the mother wrote:

The mishap above took place just nine days after the first unexpected event. And luckily one or both parents were in the right place at the right time in both situations. You can’t always count on luck, however.

I’m so glad that the family is not going to take any more chances since they’ve decided to “fence it in” and install a climb-resistant mesh fence.

And “climb-resistant mesh” is key. Take a look at this video of a toddler (pictured above) scaling a fence.

Toddlers are master climbers. So when installing a barrier, make sure that it’s climb-resistant.

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the mother sharing her two stories with us. I hope that this will have an impact as a result.

The individuals that are most at risk here are 1-4-year-olds. Drowning is the number one cause of accidental death for this age group, and it mostly happens in backyard swimming pools. So be sure to fence it in!

Please, if you’ve had a similar experience, I would love to hear from you. The more people that we can reach with stories like this, the more lives we can save.

Love the water, so
Tessa so

P.S. Get the FREE water safety app to help ensure your family stays safe in, on and around the water. It includes kid-friendly videos and quizzes. Search the iTunes app store for Swim by American Red Cross or click here. For Google Play you can use the same search parameters or click here. It provides the latest in water safety guidance to help ensure your family stays safe in, on and around the water.

P.P.S. To start your child on the path to becoming water safe, click here. so

climb-resistant mesh fence

Fun fact: In 2013, sixty-four-year-old Diana Nyad became the first person to swim from Havanna, Cuba to Key West, Florida. It was her fifth attempt at the 111-mile journey, and she did it without the aid of a shark cage.

If you get a chance to watch her inspirational documentary about her unrelenting determination to accomplish her near impossible dream, jump at it. It’s called The Other Shore, and it will not disappoint.

Speaking of real stories, I would like to share one with you about a family that has their daughter enrolled in swimming lessons with me.

Only the names have been changed.

About a year ago, after deducing that nothing bad will happen, Jane and her husband, John decided not to erect a barrier around their swimming pool.

They agreed with each other, “we’re always with her when we’re outside,” referring to their 19-month-old daughter, Anna.

Flash forward to Valentine’s Day 2017. While Anna was watching TV, Jane was preparing breakfast.

John headed off to the shower after letting the dog out into the backyard.

Several minutes later, John started screaming, “the baby’s outside! The baby’s outside!”

Startled by the screams, Jane didn’t know at first why John was yelling. Once she could wrap her brain around it, she launched toward the window and saw Anna standing there by the pool.

By the time Jane got outside, Anna was sitting on the edge of the pool with her feet dangling in the water.

When John let the dog out, the door didn’t latch properly, so Anna was able to let herself out effortlessly and unnoticed.

Thank goodness John happened to look outside when he did.

Jane also shared with me that Anna likes to get on her belly and enter the pool by lowering herself down feet first.

If Jane didn’t get out when she did, that probably would’ve been Anna’s next move.

I once knew a little boy who wasn’t so lucky. He was the same age as Anna and unfortunately never lived to see his second birthday. It’s a parent’s worst nightmare.

The family doesn’t know exactly how their son ended up at the bottom of the pool, but they were able to discern that the door from their house to the backyard was open and the dog was also outside.

Eerily similar circumstances.

Please consider installing a fence (climb-resistant mesh fence is best) around your pool, if you haven’t already.

And even if you do have a fence, close supervision is still essential. Children will find creative ways to scale it. Remove any structures that gain access to the pool. Some structures include but are not limited to outdoor furniture, climbable trees, decorative walls and playground equipment.

And if your children often visit friends and or relatives with a pool, please encourage them also to fence it in.

Do the same for other water sources, such as spas and landscape water features.

Drowning is the number one cause of accidental death among children ages 1-4. These children most often drown in home pools.

I want to bring as much awareness as I can to the general public of such statistics in the hopes that people will take the necessary precautions to prevent accidents.

The more real stories that I can share with you and others, I think the more impressive my efforts will be.

I would love for you to share your stories with me so that I can spread the word.

Your story might just be the one that makes a family decide to fence it in. You would be contributing to saving lives.

Like Jane and John, most parents probably think that their child(ren) can’t get out of the house, so what’s the point?

Until it happens, you never would have been able to imagine how it could happen.

I’ve illustrated one scenario. I am one person, and I know of two families with virtually the same story. It makes you wonder just how common this particular sequence of events is.

And there’s no way to predict what other bizarre circumstances could lead to the same outcome.

It’s like those Farmers Insurance commercials with all the outrageous but real mishaps. Click here if you’d like to see it.

Drowning is easily preventable. And one of the most important and easiest ways to keep your children safe is to erect barriers around your pool, spa, and landscape water features.

Fence it in! Doesn’t that sound like a great slogan for a national campaign to prevent drowning?

If you have a related story or experience on the subject, please share, I would love to hear what you have to say. Maybe we can make an impact.

Love the water,
Tessa climb-resistant mesh fence

P.S. Get the FREE water safety app to help ensure your family stays safe in, on and around the water. It includes kid-friendly videos and quizzes. Search the iTunes app store for Swim by American Red Cross or click here. For Google Play you can use the same search parameters or click here. It provides the latest in water safety guidance to help ensure your family stays safe in, on and around the water.

P.P.S. To start your child on the path to becoming water safe, click here.