How Many Babies Have Actually Drowned in Toilets

Toilets & Toddlers Danger

The Gist: This is a curtailed and useful article on habitation drowning hazards with some practiced reminders.

Comment: My niece has a rubber toilet seat clip that keeps her toddler (and me) from raising the lid.

For more, please visit the following MedicineNet.com areas:

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Frederick Hecht, Doctor, FAAP, FACMG
Associate Chief Medical Editor, MedicineNet.com

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Pools Are Not the Simply Drowning Danger at Home for Kids
Information Show Other Hazards Cause More than 100 Residential Child Drowning Deaths Annually

Young children are irresistibly drawn to h2o, and tragically, about 350 children under age 5 drown in pond pools and spas each year. But even if yous don't accept a pool, your young children may not be safe from drowning. The U.South. Consumer Product Condom Commission (CPSC) reported that near 87 children drown each twelvemonth from other hazards around the habitation.

"Too many young children are drowning," said Chairman Inez Tenenbaum. "Just as with pools, I urge parents and caregivers to childproof their home and constantly supervise young children effectually bathtubs, bathroom seats and buckets. Taking extra prophylactic steps at home can help forbid a tragic drowning."

Bathtubs

Children drowning in bathtubs account for well-nigh two-thirds of reported drowning deaths in the home. The majority of these bathtub deaths occur when the caregiver is non present. In the time it takes to pace out of the room to get a towel or answer the phone, a young kid can drown.

Buckets

Many parents and caregivers may non realize the danger buckets pose. From 1996 through 1999, CPSC received reports of 58 children under age 5 who drowned in 5-gallon buckets. Even a pocket-sized amount of liquid can be mortiferous. Of all buckets, the 5-gallon size presents the greatest adventure to young children because of its tall, direct sides. That, combined with the stability of these buckets, makes it nearly incommunicable for elevation-heavy infants and toddlers to costless themselves when they fall into the bucket headfirst.

Toilets Toilets tin can be overlooked every bit a drowning hazard in the home. The typical scenario involves a child under iii-years-old falling headfirst into the toilet.

Spas and Hot Tubs

Spas and hot tubs, typically located near or sometimes within the home, pose another hazard to immature children.

Other Products

Though not equally ofttimes involved in deaths, other products around the home containing water can be drowning hazards. The most common of these are buckets with a capacity different than the 5-gallon size. Boosted drowning deaths have also involved landscape ponds, sinks, and fish tanks, among other products.

TIPS

CPSC offers these tips to assistance preclude young children from drowning:

• Never get out a baby alone in a bathtub for even a 2d. Always go along the babe in arm's attain. Don't leave a baby in the intendance of some other young child. Never leave to answer the telephone, respond the door, to get a towel or for any other reason. If you lot must go out, take the baby with y'all.
• A baby bathroom seat is not a substitute for supervision. A bath seat is a bathing assistance, not a safety device. Babies have slipped or climbed out of bathroom seats and drowned.
• Never employ a baby bath seat in a non-skid, slip-resistant bathtub because the suction cups will not adhere to the bathtub surface or tin can disassemble unexpectedly.
• Never leave a bucket containing even a small amount of liquid unattended. When finished using a saucepan, ever empty information technology immediately.
• Store buckets where young children cannot reach them. Buckets, attainable to children, that are left exterior to collect rainwater are a gamble.
• Always secure safety covers and barriers to preclude children from gaining access to spas or hot tubs when not in apply. Some non-rigid covers, such every bit solar covers, tin can allow a modest child to skid in the water and the encompass would appear to yet be in place.
• Keep the toilet lid down to foreclose access to the water and consider using a toilet prune to end young children from opening the lids. Consider placing a latch on the bath door out of reach of young children.
• Learn CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) -- information technology can be a lifesaver when seconds count.

Swimming Pools

Consumers with residential pools need to be enlightened of all the safety tips regarding in-home hazards, and also be aware of how to protect immature children from the dangers a pool poses.

The cardinal to preventing a swimming pool tragedy is to accept layers of protection. This includes placing barriers around your pool to prevent admission, using door and pool alarms, closely supervising your child and beingness prepared in instance of an emergency. CPSC offers these tips to prevent puddle drowning:

• Fences and walls should exist at to the lowest degree 4 anxiety high and installed completely effectually the puddle. Fence gates should open up outward from the pool and should exist cocky-closing and self- latching. The latch should be out of a small child'due south achieve.
• If your house forms one side of the barrier to the pool, then doors leading from the house to the pool should be protected with alarms that produce a sound when a door is unexpectedly opened.
• A power prophylactic encompass -- a motor-powered barrier that tin be placed over the water area -- can be used when the puddle is not in utilize.
• Continue rescue equipment past the pool and be certain a telephone is poolside with emergency numbers posted.
• For above-basis pools, steps and ladders to the pool should be secured and locked, or removed when the pool is non in apply.
• If a child is missing, always wait in the puddle first. Seconds count in preventing death or disability.
• Puddle alarms can be used as an added precaution.

CPSC offers complimentary publications consumers tin use to help prevent child drowning: "Safety Barrier Guidelines for Pools," "How to Programme for the Unexpected," "Guidelines for Entrapment Hazards: Making Pools and Spas Safer," and "Prevent Child In-Dwelling Drowning Deaths." Copies of these publications tin can be obtained here on CPSC's website, or by writing to "Foreclose Drowning," CPSC, Washington, D.C., 20207.

Sources:

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1. MedicineNet

REFERENCES:

Medically reviewed by Margaret A. Walsh, MD; Board Certification in Pediatrics August 2, 2017

Editor: Frederick Hecht, Physician, FAAP, FACMG, Acquaintance Chief Medical Editor, MedicineNet.com

The above information has been provided with the permission of the CDC.

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