Expert: Education is key to preventing child drownings

LAKE MARY, Fla. — A survival swim school operator points to Florida’s tragically high number of child drownings in urging parents to educate their children on how to handle themselves in water, even before they are old enough for organized swimming.

"Teach them to hold their breath when they feel water on their face, to look for a way out of the pool and, when they need to breathe, to roll over and float independently,"  explained Kelly Whittemore of Swim Life.

Florida leads the nation in drowning deaths of children under the age of four.

“Now is the time to register your kids in swim lessons if they don’t know how to swim. With all of the water we have here in Florida, we must provide children with survival skills so they learn to respect water, stay safe and have fun,” she urged.

A good rule during swimming pool parties is to have an adult identified as knowing CPR, making sure children who cannot swim are wearing life jackets and having someone poolside who is not distracted and can keep an eye on kids in and near the water.

Whittemore warns parents that “a child can slip in the water completely unnoticed without a splash and they never surface because they don’t know how.”

She called it “a silent way to die.”

The swimming advocate credited Florida with “a great law” that requires fencing around unattended pools, but it’s hard to monitor its compliance.