5 ms·

To all parents out there, it takes 10 seconds for a toddler to drown. Once in the water, if they go under, they tend to get disoriented and don't know where is

To all parents out there, it takes 10 seconds for a toddler to drown. Once in the water, if they go under, they tend to get disoriented and don't know where is up or down. When you are with your kids near a swimming pool or the sea, keep your eyes glued on them. My rule is "never break line of sight" (I borrowed the term from Assassin's Creed where if you break line of sights from the guards chasing you for a few seconds, their aggro switches off). Line of sight. When near water opt in for a nice podcast/audio book and keep your eyes on your kids. A lifeguard is scanning the scene but on a 50 kids, you are most likely to spot something like this faster/sooner. Also while looking at your kids, you automatically scan/cover an area of 10-15sqm.

missosoup 7y ago
> My rule is "never break line of sight" That's an actual law with children in Australia, idk about the rest of the world. <5 years old within arms reach, <10 years old within line of sight.
- mcv 7y ago
  In my experience, <4 years, you hold them if the water is more than a few inches deep; 5-6 years, you're within 2 meters and paying attention to them; once they've got their first swimming diploma, you need to be near the pool; after their second, they can swim on their own, even they're under 10.
ElgamalDSA 7y ago
Friends of friends recently had their 1.5 year old drown in the bathtub when her dad left her alone for a minute. When you are at a pool / lake / sea with a kid that cannot swim, keep them in arms reach.
- Fnoord 7y ago
  As a young adult, I almost drowned in a bathtub when taking magic mushrooms for the first time (a very small dosage of ~1/6th of a full dosage). I did put less water in the tub, but I still fell asleep, and when I woke up, the water line was a few mm from my nose openings. Do not use such drugs without a babysitter!
throwaway744678 7y ago
I can only strongly confirm this: last summer, my 2.5 years old boy fell in a (private) swimming pool while playing around it. Of the 4 adults that were around the pool (less than 3 meters away), only one saw him and could get him back safely. We could not hear a single noise, no cries, no water splashes... Although he was wearing those kids armbands, they were useless as they were keeping his head underwater (he fell head first). The whole thing took less than 5 seconds, but it was really frightening in retrospect. Do not break line of sight.
- epx 7y ago
  Happened with me once and my kid was 8 or 9 already. 10 seconds not looking and he was already drowning on the deep part of the pool (where he was told not to go).
mncharity 7y ago
> or the sea This can be surprisingly non-obvious. A 5-ish year old walking around and splashing at the beach. In shallow below-knee water. With shallow above-knee surf. No worries. Gets knocked down. Repeated wave impacts, unstable sand, water hitting face, struggle to breathe air and not water. They're unable to stand up again. Keep trying and falling. And then not trying. The parent was a couple meters away, watching, interpreting this as play. Bystanders stepped in. Intervention was trivially easy. Parent criticized kid for fooling around. So even afterwards, it was non-obvious they had been watching their kid drown. Perhaps if you don't have experience where the challenge to breathing isn't absence of air, but the presence of too much water mixed into it?
Fnoord 7y ago
Line of Sight (LoS / LOS) is indeed an aspect in some video games [1], including World of Warcraft. I'm going to swim with my 2 year old daughter for the first time this Saturday, so this being linked on HN was a chilling reminder. What I'm mostly scared about is that she gets some kind of temper tantrum whilst being in the water. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_sight_(video_games) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_sight_(video_games)
_ph_ 7y ago
If you are trying to keep the line of sight, never ever use a smartphone. Based from my own experience, it can easily completely distract you for 10-20 seconds or longer. Especially if you think you are "just" doing a quick thing. Then there is a notification dragging you off or something else.

missosoup 7y ago

> My rule is "never break line of sight" That's an actual law with children in Australia, idk about the rest of the world. <5 years old within arms reach, <10 years old within line of sight.

mcv 7y ago
In my experience, <4 years, you hold them if the water is more than a few inches deep; 5-6 years, you're within 2 meters and paying attention to them; once they've got their first swimming diploma, you need to be near the pool; after their second, they can swim on their own, even they're under 10.

ElgamalDSA 7y ago

Friends of friends recently had their 1.5 year old drown in the bathtub when her dad left her alone for a minute. When you are at a pool / lake / sea with a kid that cannot swim, keep them in arms reach.

Fnoord 7y ago
As a young adult, I almost drowned in a bathtub when taking magic mushrooms for the first time (a very small dosage of ~1/6th of a full dosage). I did put less water in the tub, but I still fell asleep, and when I woke up, the water line was a few mm from my nose openings. Do not use such drugs without a babysitter!

throwaway744678 7y ago

I can only strongly confirm this: last summer, my 2.5 years old boy fell in a (private) swimming pool while playing around it. Of the 4 adults that were around the pool (less than 3 meters away), only one saw him and could get him back safely. We could not hear a single noise, no cries, no water splashes... Although he was wearing those kids armbands, they were useless as they were keeping his head underwater (he fell head first). The whole thing took less than 5 seconds, but it was really frightening in retrospect. Do not break line of sight.

epx 7y ago
Happened with me once and my kid was 8 or 9 already. 10 seconds not looking and he was already drowning on the deep part of the pool (where he was told not to go).

mncharity 7y ago

> or the sea This can be surprisingly non-obvious. A 5-ish year old walking around and splashing at the beach. In shallow below-knee water. With shallow above-knee surf. No worries. Gets knocked down. Repeated wave impacts, unstable sand, water hitting face, struggle to breathe air and not water. They're unable to stand up again. Keep trying and falling. And then not trying. The parent was a couple meters away, watching, interpreting this as play. Bystanders stepped in. Intervention was trivially easy. Parent criticized kid for fooling around. So even afterwards, it was non-obvious they had been watching their kid drown. Perhaps if you don't have experience where the challenge to breathing isn't absence of air, but the presence of too much water mixed into it?

Fnoord 7y ago

Line of Sight (LoS / LOS) is indeed an aspect in some video games [1], including World of Warcraft. I'm going to swim with my 2 year old daughter for the first time this Saturday, so this being linked on HN was a chilling reminder. What I'm mostly scared about is that she gets some kind of temper tantrum whilst being in the water. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_sight_(video_games) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_sight_(video_games)

_ph_ 7y ago

If you are trying to keep the line of sight, never ever use a smartphone. Based from my own experience, it can easily completely distract you for 10-20 seconds or longer. Especially if you think you are "just" doing a quick thing. Then there is a notification dragging you off or something else.