POOL SAFETY Drowning... The greatest danger to your child at home UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM Statistically speaking, drowning is a leading cause of death among children under 5 years of age. Studies show that 95% of pediatric drownings occur with children between the ages of 1 and 4. If your child is in this age group, the possibility of such a tragedy occurring is too great to postpone taking action. As soon as your child can crawl, it is important to prevent them from gaining access to your pool. What about supervision? Nearly all the children who drowned in their home swimming pool were supposed to be under the supervision of an adult at the time of the drowning. What happened? There was a brief lapse in supervision that allowed the child to slip away unnoticed. That lapse was enough for a family to lose their precious child forever. What about the amount of time? Studies indicate that most children were missing for less than 5 minutes. A distracting phone call, a knock at the door, a few minutes trying to straighten the house, or putting in that last load of wash. These everyday distractions are all it takes to lose your child. Also unsettling is the fact that many drownings occurred while both parents were home supervising the child. Meal times (a time when you are most distracted and often assume someone else is supervising the child) were the most frequent times of drowning occurrence. What about splashing? Pool drownings are generally silent events. There is rarely any splashing or calling out. Installation of a Protect-A-Child Pool Fence System can provide dependable safety to help prevent this kind of tragedy. VISIT Protect-A-Child for more information.