TAMPA, Fla. — Summer is around the corner, and May is national water safety and drowning prevention month.
Drownings are preventable. Parents can enroll their children in survival swim lessons as early as six months old.
"It's important that they learn early on: one, because drowning is the leading cause of death among children ages 1 to 4 years old, in Hillsborough County," Kari Bahour said.
Bahour is the co-founder and senior master instructor of Watch Me Swim.
"[Drowning] is the leading cause of death among children ages 1 to 5 years old. So it's important to get them started earlier. We focus on teaching competence before confidence," she said.
It's not like the movies – there aren't always big loud splashes and screams when a drowning occurs. And it doesn't happen in minutes, it can happen in seconds.
"A child under 30 pounds can take 30 seconds for drowning to occur," Bahour said. "It's swift, it's quick... it doesn't take a lack of supervision. It takes a momentary lapse in supervision for a child, for a curious toddler to escape supervision and find his ways to, you know, naturally curious waters.
"It's silent. You don't hear a child call for help underwater. It's a quick, silent death."
Bahour said as soon as an infant is able to sit up unsupported, they're old enough to learn lifesaving swimming skills.
"Children as young as 6 months who are able to sit unassisted can start learning the essential life-saving rule back-to-float part of the swim-float-swim," Bahour said. "When they're 12 months and up, they can learn the entire sequence of swim, float, swim, and repeat the sequence as many times as they need to till they reach safety."
Preventing drowning is an issue close to Bahours heart and something she thinks about every time she sees her son.
"26 years ago, my son had a nonfatal drowning," Bahour said. "He was 16 months old, it was winter, he was fully clothed, he escaped adult supervision. I had two other little ones. It was at a friend's house. Everybody assumed the gate was up, the door was locked. A lot of people around, we all just assumed there was safety measures in place.
"My son was found facedown in the water unconscious, not breathing. You know, miraculously he survived. We didn't do CPR, we were just in so much shock and not really understanding what was happening. But my son made a miraculous recovery. So ever since then I researched different types of swim programs, I made it my mission to ensure that no other child has to be found facedown in a pool.
These lessons aren't taught to replace adult supervision. They're a last resort skill set in case a child finds themself in water without an adult to help.
From 2018 to 2020 combined, Florida was ranked the highest in the U.S. for unintentional drowning death rate among children ages 1 to 4 years old. Florida had the highest unintentional drowning death rate of 3.19 per 100,000 population among children 0 to 9 years of age compared to other states (CDC national injury data).
Annually there are enough children under the age of 5 lost to drowning to fill three or four preschool classrooms (Florida CHARTS).
Swim lessons can be pricey. There are affordable options for parents looking to get their kids comfortable in the water.
For resources on free classes offered by the YMCA, click here.
For assistance in covering the costs of swim lessons, Water Smart Tots can help. Water Smart Tots, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to combatting childhood drownings in the Greater Tampa Bay area. The non-profit provides complimentary interactive water safety programs to thousands of preschoolers in addition to awarding hundreds of scholarships for high-quality, one-on-one swim lessons to financially underprivileged children from the ages of 12 months and 5 years. For more information, click here.
Water Smart Tots will host its second annual Charity Gala on Friday, May 5. The Gala will highlight national water safety month and raise awareness for childhood drowning prevention.
Malique Rankin is a general assignment reporter with 10 Tampa Bay. You can email her story ideas at mrankin@10tampabay.com and follow her Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.