27 For beginning swimmers, adequate supervision is “touch supervision,” in which the supervising adult is within arm’s reach of the child so he or she can pull the child out of the water if the child’s head becomes submerged under water. 11, 37, 38 Adequate supervision, described as close, constant, and attentive supervision of young children in or around any water, is a primary and absolutely essential preventive strategy. Inadequate supervision is often cited as a contributing factor for childhood drowning, especially for younger children. Make rescue devices available at swim sites Increase access to affordable and culturally compatible swim lessonsĬlose high-risk waters during high-risk times Remove toys from pools when not in use to reduce temptation for children to enter the pool Install 4-sided fencing that isolates the pool from the house and yardĬlear handoff supervision responsibilitiesĭevelop water competency, including water-safety knowledge, basic swim skills, and ability to recognize and respond to a swimmer in trouble Provide close, constant, and attentive supervision of children and poor swimmers There is a need for a broad and coordinated research agenda to address not only the efficacy of swim lessons for children age 1 to 4 years but also the many components of water competency for the child and parent or caregiver. Achieving basic water-competency swim skills requires multiple lessons, and acquisition of water competency is a protracted process that involves learning in conjunction with developmental maturation. High-quality swim lessons provide more experiential training, including swimming in clothes, in life jackets, falling in, and practicing self-rescue. Parents and caregivers should investigate options for swim lessons in their community before enrollment to make sure that the program meets their needs and the needs of the child. There is tremendous variability among swim lessons, and not every program will be right for each child. 30 Importantly, performance of these water-survival skills, usually learned in a pool, is affected by the aquatic environment (water temperature, water depth, water movement, clothing, and distance), and demonstration of skills in 1 aquatic environment may not transfer to another. 1īasic swim skills include ability to enter the water, surface, turn around, propel oneself for at least 25 yards, float on or tread water, and exit the water. For the period 2013–2017, the highest drowning death rates were seen in white male children 0 to 4 years of age (3.44 per 100 000), American Indian and/or Alaskan native children 0 through 4 years (3.58), and African American male adolescents 15 to 19 years of age (4.06 per 100 000). Overall, African American children have the highest drowning fatality rates, followed in order by American Indian and/or Alaskan native, white, Asian American and/or Pacific Islander, and Hispanic children. After 1 year of age, male children of all ages are at greater risk of drowning than female children. Rates of drowning death vary with age, sex, and race and/or ethnicity, with toddlers and male adolescents at highest risk. Fortunately, childhood unintentional drowning fatality rates have decreased steadily from 2.68 per 100 000 in 1985 to 1.11 per 100 000 in 2017. 1 In 2017, drowning claimed the lives of almost 1000 US children. Drowning is the leading cause of injury death in US children 1 to 4 years of age and the third leading cause of unintentional injury death among US children and adolescents 5 to 19 years of age.
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