Parents misjudge water dangers

Parents are overconfident about their children's safety and abilities around water, according to "Clear Danger: A National Study of Childhood Drowning and Related Attitudes and Behaviors," a report published by the nonprofit National Safe Kids Campaign.

"And although drowning is the second-leading cause of injury-related death for children ages 1 to 14, more than half of parents say they do not worry much or at all about their child drowning," according to the recent report.

Parents are also distracted while supervising children, don't model good water safety behavior or require their children to wear portable flotation devices when they should, according to the "Clear Danger" study, which was co-sponsored by Johnson & Johnson and focused on the specifics of 496 drowning deaths in 2000 and 2001 in 17 states.

Nationally, drowning and near-drowning sends as many as 2,700 children to U.S. hospital emergency rooms every year. And 20 percent of all near-drowning survivors suffer severe, permanent brain damage.

In Utah, between 2000 and 2002, 30 children under age 15 drowned. In 2002, 14 of the 24 Utahns who drowned were under age 18, said Jeff Duncan, director of the Office of Vital Records and Statistics for the Utah Department of Health.

Of the deaths studied in the "Clear Danger" report, another person, usually a family member, was supposedly supervising the victims in 88 percent of the incidents. "Supervision" was defined as being in the care of another individual, not necessarily in direct line of sight. Several parents said they also talked to others, read, ate and talked on the phone while supervising — and some even acknowledged closing their eyes and relaxing, reports Angela Mickalide, director of the program.

Safe Kids also conducted a survey of parents and children to determine knowledge and behavior concerning water safety.

The study concluded the following about behaviors that contribute to children's death by drowning and makes recommendations for parents to prevent water deaths and injuries:

• Drownings most commonly occur in recreational settings, often pools and open bodies of water. In fact, national data suggest more than 385 children ages 14 and under drown each year while participating in water recreation, such as swimming or boating. Nearly half of these recreational drowning deaths are among children ages 5 to 14.