With summer now here and the warmer weather upon us water becomes more prevalent in our lives and our childrens’ lives. And as the weather heats up it is common for toddlers to cool off in a laundry tub, a bath, a inflatable pool or a bucket as well as cooling off in swimming pools, rivers and the sea. But although cooling off at home in a bath tub would seem a harmless activity for our toddlers, if we are not giving them 100% of our full attention when they are near water, then tragedy can strike at any time.
This week an amazing non for profit campaign launched called “This Much” which highlights just how little amount of water can result in the drowning of a small child.
The campaign is fronted by Celebrities such as Peter Overton, Georgie Gardner, Amanda Keller and Jackie O to name but a few and their aim is to get the message out to as many families as possible that it only takes a tiny amount of water to drown a baby and this could be from something as innocent as the water in a dog bowl.
Two of the facts that shocked me the most were that:
- Since 2006, The Children’s Hospital at Westfield has seen over 88 children after and actual drowning or near drowning and 1 in 6 of those children died and some of the children who did not die suffered brain damage from the near drowning
- Of the children seen nearly half of them had had the drowning incident in a shallow area of water versus a swimming pool – such as a bath with as little of 15cm of water in, inflatable pools, backyard fishponds, having a bath in a plastic bowl or in the laundry tub.
So the message is to never leave your child in any water and always look around for water dangers around the house and never leave your child in the bath whilst you answer the phone or door bell – tragedy can happen in a matter of seconds.
Please watch this amazing video below and share it with all your friends – the more people who are aware of the dangers then the safer our children will be and join their Facebook Page to show your support.
[pb_vidembed title=”This Much Water” caption=”” url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC95OAOJaY0″ type=”yt” w=”580″ h=”350″]