Twenty-three pre-schoolers drowned in New Zealand in the past five years. Four out of five of these deaths were boys, which is a marked increase on previous years.
The numbers have fallen overall in the last two five-year counting periods. Between 2011 and 2015, 35 under-5s drowned.
But Drowning Prevention Auckland says even one is too many and is warning still much to do and it’s not just swimming pools posing hazards.
Photo: 123rf
As a part of the water safety strategy, where under-5s are a key focus, it’s offering education in schools and to parents.
Chief executive of Drowning Prevention Auckland, Nicola Keen-Biggelaar, tells Kathryn Ryan that most children between the age of 0-4 drown in the home environment with almost half in home pools.
“There is an emerging trend of an increase in drowning outside but close to the home, such as ponds, streams, drains, farm troughs, creeks, and estuaries.”
She says there are still unfortunate cases of children drowning in baths.
“Children can drown in less than four centimetres of water, so any place around the home that can collect water is a risk of drowning for young children.”
The beach is also a risk factor for under-5s and Keen-Biggelaar says they’re finding that many parents are getting distracted by phones rather than closely watching their children.
“Our encouragement is to put them away, they’re not required, designate someone to do a regular head count of children along the beach so that you know where all these curious toddlers are that can get into trouble quickly.”
Around the home, Keen-Biggelaar says we should aware and listening, especially listening for silence.
“That’s the one thing that people don’t realise, that drowning is often silent, so you’re often completely unaware that your child needs you.”
It can be as simple as remembering to empty paddling pools, water containers, and remove plugs from sinks and drains, she says.
“It’s surprising where our kids can get to quickly. I think of my own experience with the near-drowning of my daughter – you just don’t realise how quickly and how silently it can happen. If you haven’t had an experience like that, you’re just not looking around your home in the same way.”
Her daughter was playing on the steps that enter the pool while Keen-Biggelaar was looking after a newborn and the father was in the water with their 3-year-old.
“All of a sudden she stepped off the bottom step and sank. It was silent, it was quick, there was no gasping for breath or flailing of arms. And there’s that hesitation where you think, is she just playing, and it was a father of another child next to me who said, is she OK, and she wasn’t.
“She got scooped up out of the water and threw up and it had a happy ending, but the point that I’ve definitely taken with me is that you can get distracted so easily in a pool environment, there’s a lot going on.”
She says that includes swim teachers and pool lifeguards who have many people to look for in the water and might not stop a child in trouble in time.
“Your child is your responsibility and it’s really important to make the point that drowning off youngsters happens to families that love their children dearly. I think we can think that they were being negligent, but these things happen so quickly and so silently, and I have a lot of compassion for anybody who has lost anyone to drowning, particularly a young child.”
Keen-Biggelaar says one prevention tactic she would like to see is phones being banned from public pools.
“There’s just no place for them. Our aquatic educators see many, many parents distracted by their phones, so I’d love to see that happen, that’d be a great step forward.”
