From the very beginning…
MSNBC Article: Dry Drowning
I did not know this. It was a very good thing that I read this article by MSNBC. I never knew you could drown as early as an hour after being out of the water.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, some 3,600 people drowned in 2005, the most recent year for which there are statistics. Some 10 to 15 percent of those deaths was classified as “dry drowning,†which can occur up to 24 hours after a small amount of water gets into the lungs. In children, that can happen during a bath.
That’s actually scary to know that he could drown after being in his bath. Ian gets a bath right before bedtime, so if this were to happen, we would never know because he goes to bed soon after. Although, the bath tends to energize him if we don’t put him straight to bed, so we may have to change his routine a little. A bath and then bed maybe at least 30 minutes afterwards.
The three signs that could indicate dry drowning:
- difficulty breathing
- extreme tiredness
- changes in behavior
All three symptoms come from a loss of oxygen flow to the brain, which would make sense since it means there is water in the lungs. I know I’m going to be very careful around water with Ian now.
ok, lets break down the latest media fearmongering. I’ll be generous and say 60% of the 3600 drowings were children.
2400 children drownings / year.
15% of 2400 = 360 dry drowning children / year.
In 2006 there were 73.7 million children in the US.
0.000599% of US children die from this a year.
That’s about a 1 in 204,722 chance of dying from dry drowning.
This is also the same chance of dying from an asteroid strike.
Plus, the warning signs are a joke- tiredness? after his nightime bath at 8:30pm? Changes in behavior? you mean like being cranky because he’s tired? Define “changes in behavior”.
Difficulty breathing I’d almost give you if we BOTH didn’t have asthma growing up.
So if you’re going to be concerned about this, you may want to re-enforce the ceiling over Ian’s crib as well.