Danger in the Backyard

By Doug Borrie, PhD

Florida has the highest drowning rate in the nation for children ages one to four years old, and the number of children who drown in Florida each year keeps increasing. Backyard swimming pools are the most common location for drowning deaths to occur, and sliding doors are the most common way children get to the pool. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “most young children who drowned in pools were last seen in the home, had been out of sight less than five minutes, and were in the care of one or both parents at the time.”

I learned one of the biggest myths about drowning the hard way. I was in our above ground pool with my two year old son, and, as we were getting out, I turned away from him to grab the ladder to climb out. When I turned back, he was on the bottom of the pool, face down, arms outstretched, waiting to die. There was no splashing or screaming, no going down for the third time, no struggle, and, he sank like a bag of cement. It was instant and it was silent.

This was not a tragedy because I was right there, and reached down and picked him up. When he hit the surface, he took a deep breath, and, other than that, seemed to hardly notice what had just happened. But I then understood how dangerous a pool is, and why, when parents go looking for a missing child, the bottom of the pool is often the last place they look. They may be thinking that they would have heard or seen a child who was drowning. Not so.

Children drown in the family pool for basically two reasons. First, the supervising adult has taken attention away from the child in the pool, and the child slips underneath the water with no more than a pint-sized ripple. Second, the child is not in the pool, but goes from the house or yard to the pool, and climbs or falls in.

It’s an important distinction because it tells us about preventing these tragedies. No single method works by itself. Instead, layers of prevention techniques and strategies are needed. First and foremost is supervision….Line of Sight Supervision…where the adult keeps the child in sight at all times. This means no cell phones, magazines, sunbathing, or other leisure activities that will take your eyes and mind away from your task.

Secondly, and less obvious, are the times the child gets out of the house, through those sliding doors, and instead of quietly playing in the Florida room while mom gets dinner ready or puts in another load of laundry, is headed toward the pretty blue water. This is why a fence is a necessity. Ideally, a four-sided isolation pool fence (one that encloses the pool only), which is better than a perimeter fence (one that encloses both pool and property). A self-closing, self-latching gate maximizes the protection the fence will offer. And, back to those sliding doors, they should be baby-proofed just like the kitchen cabinets that store the bleach and furniture polish. Opening them should be a chore. The kind that only an adult can manage.

Compared to the cost of installing and maintaining a pool, the cost of safety is minimal. Compared to the safety of your children, it should be considered as important as digging the hole.