Survival swim lessons teach self-rescue to toddlers

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- Tragedy has hit Central Virginia not once, but twice this week, with two young children dying after drowning in pools.

Preventing drowning takes multiple layers of protection, and one of them is teaching kids self-rescue skills if they do fall in the water.

Instructors at Starfish Infant Aquatics say kids can start learning survival swim skills as young as six months old.

"As soon as their child is sitting up independently, and they’re at least six months old, they actually can learn to hold their breath underwater, roll over and float and wait for help," said Erin Loewe, owner of Starfish Infant Aquatics.

One of Starfish's instructors learned about survival swimming after facing a near-tragedy herself.

Katie Jennings was at a birthday party with her kids when she realized her 2-year-old daughter, Nora, had not come back inside from the pool with the rest of the party.

Nora was pulled from the pool unresponsive. After several days in the hospital, she made a full recovery.

But not every person is so lucky. Jennings said that, after the accident, she learned that drowning was a leading cause of death for kids ages 1 to 4.

"I had no idea," Jennings said. "When Nora had her accident, I was like, who does this happen to? Like, this isn’t a thing, this doesn’t happen. But it happens all too often."

Jennings had all of her kids enrolled in survival swim classes, which teach them to roll over onto their backs in the water.

"A child’s head is such a huge proportion of their body weight that they can’t really lift their head for a breath," Loewe said. "If they are strong enough to do that, they may take a couple sips of air, but then get tired and go vertical and sink."

Loewe said survival swim skills should be the last barrier of defense against accidental drowning. Other protections include assigning an adult "water watcher" when kids are playing. Pool covers, fences and alarms can also be used when kids should not be in the water.

Chrissy Fandel is the Executive Director of Drowning Prevention with the YMCA of Greater Richmond. She said parents should always be within two seconds of their children in the water.

This makes adults' swim skills just as important as those of kids.

"If a parent or caregiver does not learn how to swim, their child is less likely to have the opportunity to learn to swim because of access and going to water sources," Fandel said. "So it is so important for you as a parent and adult to learn to swim."