Last week I posted a video that I had seen over email about child drowing prevention.  The video was really hard to watch but also peaked my interest.  It really makes you think..a lot of us think that something like that could never happen to our child?  But how can we be so sure?  I know someone that lost a sibling that was a small child who drowned in the family pool and I can’t begin to imagine.

I was contacted by a really neat group of people that run a school in Florida, called The Baby Otter Swim School.  Whether you live in Florida or not, you should check this site out.  I thought some of the testimonials were great and thought the following statistics were an eye opener:

Why should we be concerned about teaching our child to swim?

     • Drowning is the #1 cause of death for children ages 1 to 4 in Florida.
     • 75% of victims are ages 12 to 25 months old.
     • 65% drown in the family pool.
     • 33% drown in a neighbors’ or relatives’ pool.
     • For every child that drowns, 4 are hospitalized for near drowning.
     • 77% were missing less than 5 minutes.

If that doesn’t make you sit back and think, then nothing will!  The Baby Otter Swim school also has a product for safety awareness that can be purchased.  The awareness product consists of:

• An animated safety DVD for kids called “You Otter be safe around the pool” which is designed to teach pool safety to your children in an entertaining way.
• DVD for adults called “Is your child’s life worth 10 minutes?” which gives parents a step-by-step approach to using the right tools to safeguard their children
• Also included is a companion coloring book

The DVD set retails for $19.95 and can be found by visiting The baby otter swim club site or calling 1-888-SWIM-KID

Filed under: Products, Family