Help children: Make backyard pool safety a family habit

MANATEE — Manatee County health and public safety officials want residents to get in the habit of keeping their swimming pools safe for children, just as they keep children safe in their vehicles by using car seats.

Swimming pools toys often are left floating on the surface long after a party is over; that can lure a child to try and retrieve the toy, said Manatee County Public Safety Capt. Larry Leinhauser.

“A child doesn’t realize that water has depth,” Leinhauser said. “They think they can walk on it.”

Manatee County public safety officials say that most of Manatee’s estimated 27,000 residential swimming pools have barriers, alarms and other safety devices, but sometimes they aren’t used.

Local officials recently kicked off a Florida Safe Pools campaign.

Through its new website, www.FloridaSafePools.com, the Suncoast Safe Kids Coalition is providing information on products and strategies for keeping children safe around pools.

Florida leads the nation in drowning deaths for children less than 5 years old, said Dr. Jennifer Bencie, director of the Manatee County Health Department.

An average of 74 children — that translates to four pre-school classrooms — has drowned in Florida every year since 2000, said Jean Shoemaker, coordinator of the Suncoast Safe Kids Coalition at All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg.

That means 744 children since 2000 have not celebrated their fifth birthdays. Manatee also has experienced a high rate of drowning deaths in children younger than 5, Leinhauser said.

Near drowning also can cause severe disability and have a tremendous economic impact on the family and society.

Data from 2008 shows that $1.6 million was spent in Florida on near drowning hospitalizations, Bencie said.

While children younger than 10 are more likely to drown in a swimming pool, older children are more likely to drown in natural, or open, water.

“We recommend swimming at the beaches where there are lifeguards,” Bencie said.

A majority of drownings occur on holidays, especially Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day weekends.

To combat all of these problems, Florida Safe Pools recommends using multiple layers of pool protection, including appointing a pool watcher whenever there is activity at the pool, installing fences and other barriers and alarms on gates leading to the pool.

There also are wrist bands and bracelets with turtles and other attractive characters on them that children can wear that sound an ear-splitting alarm when wet, said Charis Tyson, of the Florida Swimming Pool Association.

“ ‘I was only on the phone for a minute or I had turned my back for a minute,’ ” Leinhauser said he hears from parents who experience the loss of a child to a pool accident.

“The problem is that children run everywhere they go,” Shoemaker said.

Teaching all family members to swim is another key safety component, Bencie said.

“Using personal flotation devices on toddlers is a key, along with learning CPR and never leaving a child unsupervised by a pool,” Bencie added.

“Being handed the lifeless body of a child is the worst thing our people ever deal with,” said Chief Ron Koper, of Manatee County Emergency Medical Services.

Richard Dymond, Herald reporter, can be reached at 748-0411, ext. 6686.