This article from the Ottawa Citizen, is an extremely important read!! It is so easy to turn your eyes away from a pool or beach, when so much is happening around you. We had a near miss with our 3 year old daughter (she is now 33!). She was floating in a plastic ring (a false sense of security for us!) and she went under – no sound whatsoever! Fortunately, my sister-in-law saw the ring floating out of the corner of her eye and jumped in and saved her! (Thanks Brenda!!!) Please be careful and do not take your eyes off of your wee ones when playing near water! After our experience, we made a pack, to take turns watching, so one pair of eyes were always on the children! Read on….

Kids can drown in 20 seconds, experts warn as toll rises

Twenty seconds. That’s how quickly a child can drown, marking how fleeting the margin between life and death can be.

And this year, sadly, it has become all too common.

A two-year-old boy who drowned at a private daycare in Ottawa Wednesday is the sixth Ontario toddler to die in a backyard pool since mid-May. The deaths are part of a tragic trend that has seen 75 people drown in the province so far this year — 11 more than last year at the same point.

Nationally, 230 people have already drowned this year, compared to 194 last year at the same date.

“It has been a horrible year for drowning,” said Lesley Anderson, of the Red Cross.

Bad as the death toll on the water has been so far this year, it’s almost certain to get worse, said Barbara Byers, the Lifesaving Society’s public education director. “The last 10 days in July and the first 10 days or two weeks in August are usually peak season (for drowning).”

And with a holiday weekend approaching, Byers said, “I suspect there will be more.”

Pools hold an almost magnetic attraction for young children, said Anderson. “If you see an outdoor pool in the summer when the sun is shining, that water really glitters and children tend to be drawn toward that.”

As well, most toddlers haven’t yet developed a fear of the water, Byers noted. If left unsupervised, even for a moment, they’re likely to jump in.

Because toddlers’ heads are heavy in relation to their bodies, they usually can’t easily turn them to the side or lift them out of the water.

“The water goes right down and they can drown very quickly,” Byers said.

It can take as little as 20 seconds.

Not only are toddler drownings quick, they’re also typically silent. The young victims don’t even have time to scream, Byers said. “Other than the splash — and they’re little, so it’s not a big splash — you’re not going to see it, you’re not going to hear it.”

According to the Red Cross, backyard pools account for 38 per cent of toddler drownings. But only four per cent of reported toddler drownings were in pools with self-closing and self-latching gates, it says.

Read more, click here.

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