03/23/2022
Yesterday I asked on my personal FB page “What is the most important thing you consider when purchasing a car seat?”. Not to my surprise, “Safety” won by a landslide.
I appreciate everyone taking the time to respond, but have to admit that the post wasn’t actually for car seats, it was to prove another point.
Long post, but please keep reading...
When I was pregnant with Ellie, I spent hours upon hours researching car seats and reading reviews. Safety was also my top concern. If anything was going to happen to my child after all, it was probably going to be in a car accident, right?
Wrong.
During my research, I found out that drowning takes more children’s lives then anything else. You heard that right. YOUR CHILD IS MORE LIKELY TO DROWN THEN DIE IN A CAR ACCIDENT. Yet we spend so much time educating, researching, reading reviews, following car seat safety pages on social media, watching car seat videos before we are discharged from Labor & Delivery only to NEGLECT the number one cause of death in children ages 1-4 and the second leading cause of death in children ages 5-15. Safety is obviously the most important thing when is comes to strapping our children in the car, but when it comes to them being around the water, it’s often not at the forefront of our thoughts.
Now my question for you is, WHY?
Do we not think it will ever happen to us? Is it a lack of education on drowning? Is it because we think swim lessons should be “fun” and crying is often associated with ISR lessons? Is it because of the price or what some consider an inconvenience?
Let me be clear. No parent wants to believe it will ever happen to them. Until Ellie fell in the water silently with 3 people less than 5 feet from the pool, and no one noticed until I heard her whine and started running towards the pool, I also believed it wouldn’t happen to us. But by the grace of God, I had made the decision for her to complete ISR anyway because of our high exposure to water. Did you know that most drownings occur with an adult present? How? Because drownings are silent and can happen in as little as 20 seconds.
Why is there a lack of education when it comes to drowning? My pediatrician and OB were completely unaware of ISR and survival swim lessons until I spoke to them about it. We are failing. Parents are being failed and we are failing our children. You may get tired of me talking about ISR, but I will continue to shout it from the rooftops if it means that I can convince even a few of you to enroll your children and potentially save their life. We can’t expect anyone to advocate for our children if we aren’t willing to advocate for them ourselves.
Enrolling your child in “fun” swim lessons where they splash and blow bubbles does not equip them with skills to survive should they find themselves in water alone, and doesn’t help them develop a healthy respect for the dangers water possess. It only increases their risk of drowning. Water should only be fun once competence is acquired. As far as crying, my child cried yesterday because I handed her a purple popsicle, which is exactly what she asked for. 🤷🏻♀️ Crying is normal and we are thankful for a crying baby face up in the water opposed to a silent baby face down.
Now to price and convenience. Most of us don’t think twice about spending hundreds of dollars on car seats. & if that car seat was involved in an accident, saved our child, and we had to replace it, we would spend that money over and over. Car seats in general cost approximately one-third to half of what ISR lessons cost and last until they expire or your child outgrows them. The skills, confidence, competence and respect learned in ISR Survival Swim Lessons stays with your children forever. I also understand that driving for your child to attend lessons 5 days a week, for 10 minutes a day, for approximately 6 weeks is an inconvenience. Any parent that has lost a child to drowning would tell you that them never being able to hold their child again is much worse than your drive. I drove approximately 2 hours roundtrip, and after watching ISR save Ellie’s life, would do it over in a heartbeat.
Rant over, for now. While drowning doesn’t know a season, warm weather is approaching and we will be around the water more. Let’s provide a layer of protection to the ones that we love the most! They deserve it.
