Drowning is a big deal. According to the CDC, drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 1-4 and a leading cause of death for other age groups as well.
At All Knox Swim, our vision is “A Drowning-Free Knoxville”. We are committed to this vision, and this article is just one of many ways we are making Knoxville safer for everyone.
Read on to see key ways to keep you and your family safe around water.
Less than 1 year old
The NDPA states that most children under 1 drown in a bathtub.
Although it is simple, the best solution to prevent this type of drowning is never to leave children unattended in the bath tub.
It is so easy to think you can just run real quick to grab that thing you missed, like a towel or bath toy. In the end, it isn’t worth it.
Children can drown in as little as 30 seconds in 1 inch of water (NDPA). Keep out all distractions and enjoy bath time with your children!
If you must retrieve something, take your child out of the bathtub and take them with you. Taking them out of the bathtub isn’t enough. They may be adventurous and fall in while you are not there.
Another key safety measure is to drain all the water when bath time is over. Although easy to forget, this step is crucial to prevent a child from drowning when you didn’t expect them to have access to water.
Ages 1-4
For this age group, pools is the most common location for drownings.
As children become mobile, they want to explore the world! Unfortunately, they do not understand all the dangers in the happiest of places. Pools are fun, but they are dangerous too.
According to the CDC, drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 1-4. This means more kids in this age group die from drowning than anything else. That is truly shocking considering how preventable drowning is.
The most important safety measures to consider are making sure your pool is enclosed by a four-sided fence, never leaving children unsupervised around the pool, and ensuring doors are always locked and door alarms always remain on.
We have a whole article dedicated to pool safety, which you can check out here!
Ages 4-adult
Drowning is most likely to occur in natural bodies of water for this age group. In Tennessee, over half of people who drowned in a boating incident were not wearing a lifejacket (TWRA).
The best thing you can do for yourself and your children is to wear a lifejacket in natural bodies of water, like lakes, rivers, and oceans.
Although it would be a big cultural shift for everyone to wear lifejackets in all natural bodies of water, is it not worth the change?
To learn more about staying safe in natural bodies of water, head over to this article.
Here at All Knox Swim, we have started two campaigns to change water safety culture: #JacketUpForLife and #FloatingFamily. Join these campaigns to reduce drowning statistics and save lives!
Be The Change
Taking steps to make you and your family safer around water will require change, and change is hard. But these changes will be worth it! If everyone who reads this takes action, then their children will learn water safety. If our children learn water safety, they will teach it to their children, and the cycle continues! That is how we change water safety culture!
We also change water safety culture by sharing water safety tips with our friends and other family members. If this article or any of the linked articles were helpful to you, share them! We can do this!
