‘In the blink of an eye’ a toddler could be floating safely

In the blink of an eye, Parrish’s Preston Woodham, 6, recently decided to jump into his grandparent’s swimming pool while his parents, brother and grandparents were all gathered in the front of the house.

But there was something different about Preston that prevented the Parrish youth from becoming part of the gruesome statistics on drownings and near drownings, which totaled 26 last year in Manatee County and six so far this year, including five children, according to Sean Dwyer of Manatee County Public Safety.

When Preston was about 1, he began to take survival swimming lessons from Bradenton’s Megan Zoller, one of the roughly 500 Infant Swimming Resource instructors in the United States.

When Preston was discovered missing, the family ran back to the swimming pool where they found him, in the blink of an eye, swimming and floating as he had been taught.

“It scared him enough that we yelled at him and now he has learned we are not allowed to get into a pool without an adult being around,” Michelle Woodham said of her oldest son. “But we were also happy he knew what to do in the water.”

Five ‘layers’ of pool protection

Swimming lessons are one of the five “layers of pool protection” recommended by Manatee County Public Safety, which last Friday launched a pool and water safety campaign in light of the drowning and near drowning statistics.

The No. 1 layer in order of importance to prevent drownings or near drownings is supervision, Dwyer said.

“The caregiver or parent is the first level of defense,” Dwyer added.

No. 2 are barriers inside the home, like alarms for doors and child proof locks for doors that exit into the pool area.

No. 3 are barriers around the outside of the pool, like safety fences around the pool or locks on pool cages or a gate system.

Dwyer reminds Manatee County homeowners regarding No. 3 that building codes for pools require legally require that barriers outside of the pool meet proper guidelines.

No. 4 is to keep pool toys or objects that might entice a toddler from being left on a pool deck or floating in the pool.

No. 5 is swimming lessons, Dwyer said.

“Swimming lessons are something we want to push,” Dwyer said.

An unofficial “sixth” layer is to learn CPR, Dwyer added.

“CPR is an awesome skill to learn,” Dwyer said.

“Zero is a hard number for everything in public safety,” Dwyer said. “But we would be happy to reduce the number of drownings and near drownings even by one. Even one would be tremendous.”

Another Woodham child learns survival swimming

On a recent Tuesday, Woodham was back with Zoller for her younger son, Barrett, who is about to turn 4.

Barrett also has had survival swimming training from Zoller since he was about 1 and now he was going through a refresher course that Zoller recommends for kids younger than age 6 after the winter.

“Swimming lessons are probably the single most important thing you could ever do for your child,” Woodham said. “The floating is probably as equally as important as the swimming. A lot of times they can’t make it to the edge because they get worn out, so floating is just as important.”

Every year, roughly 300 children younger than age 5 drown in swimming pools, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

“One of the biggest problems is that parents think it will never happen to them, and it does,” Zoller said from her home in the 3500 block of Riverview Boulevard in west Bradenton.

“It happens to even the best of parents who have locks, alarms, pool fences,” Zoller added. “Supervision is going to be No. 1 and, since we can’t, as parents, keep our eyes on our kids every second of every day, we should provide them with lessons and teach them what to do should they end up in the water alone. It’s one more tool for them to have. It happens every day.”

Zoller teaches babies age 6 months to 1 year how to hold their breath underwater and how to roll onto their back and float unassisted until someone can rescue them.

“Kids age 1 through 6 learn to swim and float and float and swim,” Zoller said. “So they swim and float and float and swim as many times as it takes to get to the side or to the stairs. If there is no side for safety, they learn to stay in their float position and call for help. So, there is a huge difference between children who have and have not had survival swimming lessons.”

Zoller teaches with just the student and herself in the water. The lessons are five days a week, 10 minutes per lesson.

“Ten minutes is a lot because they work hard in the class,” Zoller said. “This is not a typical ‘Mommy and Me’ class where they splash around. It’s a lot. They learn a lot in the 10 minutes they are with me. Anymore than 10 minutes they can get fatigued and chilled.”

Typically, the lessons last four to six weeks.

One of Zoller’s most rewarding stories is that of a child who was swimming with his father at a pool party and said, ‘Daddy, I’m going to swim to mom.’ The dad watched and thought the child had reached his mother, but actually he had not. When the father saw the mother 10 minutes later, the child was nowhere in sight. The parents discovered their child had been floating in another part of the pool all by himself for 10 minutes, waiting for rescue.

“The scary thing is that none of the guests noticed,” Zoller said. “The truth is, no one will watch your child like you will. But if you are not there, it’s great to know your child can use their own skills to survive.”

Zoller said a few families have found her after losing a child to drowning and now, they have another child and want them to have the skills.

“It makes me really sad because this is preventable,” Zoller added.

For more information on Infant Swimming Resource, including the price of the lessons or to find an instructor near you, visit infantswim.com. Zoller can be reached at 941-228-8825.

This story was originally published April 7, 2017 at 1:53 PM with the headline "‘In the blink of an eye’ a toddler could be floating safely."