A 4-year-old girl in Shanghai got lost on the beach! There are many dangers near the water that you would never imagine...

These days, the safety of the missing 4-year-old girl has been on everyone's mind, but all parties are still working hard to search and rescue around the beach, and no good news has been received yet. Let us keep a glimmer of hope and wait a little longer.

However, there is one point that I believe everyone will not disagree with, that is:

Children + unattended + near water = danger

At present, many organizations, including the World Health Organization, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and hospitals at all levels have statistics on accidental injuries and mortality among children. Although the objects and methods of these statistics may be somewhat different, for children aged 1 to 14, drowning deaths will rank in the top two. According to the data from China's national cause of death monitoring in 2021, drowning is the leading cause of accidental death among children aged 1 to 14.

Source: China Cause of Death Monitoring Dataset 2021

In addition, although we often see the unfortunate news of children drowning, the harm of drowning is not just "drowning" - **some rescued children suffer from neurological damage or even lifelong disabilities due to lack of oxygen due to drowning, **which will make the children's future life more difficult and will also place a heavy burden on the family.

The dangers of drowning in children are so great that we really need to pay special attention to it. Today, Science Popularization China will once again talk about the safety issues and misunderstandings of children playing in the water, hoping to remind parents to make their babies safer.

Are rivers, lakes and seas the only dangerous ones?

In fact, parents have a basic sense of safety. When they go out, they will carefully watch their children and keep them away from deep water and rapids. This is of course true, but sometimes we tend to ignore the dangers in our own homes.

For children aged 1 to 4, bathtubs, buckets, water tanks and even washing machines at home can become deadly traps. Children of this age are curious, active and small. If they use small stools to play with water out of curiosity, they may fall into the water container and get trapped. Parents often relax their vigilance and fail to supervise them at home, and fail to discover the incident in time, resulting in tragedy.

In this regard, parents should check whether there are such places with hidden dangers in their homes, and dry them out if necessary and cover them if necessary.

Image source: Weibo

Some accidents are caused by bathing. When using a tub or bathtub to bathe young children, parents may need to leave temporarily for something, such as making a phone call, and the child may accidentally slip into the water and drown. Therefore, if you use a tub or bathtub to bathe your child, parents must accompany them throughout the process to avoid accidents.

Speaking of family risks, let me add here that according to the "Review Report on the Epidemic Situation of Child and Adolescent Injuries in China", 46.34% of accidental injuries among children and adolescents (those that require going to the hospital) occur at home. The main causes are falls and blunt force injuries (referring to being crushed by heavy objects or hit by hard objects), etc.

It is recommended that parents regularly check for safety hazards to children at home, and pay special attention to securing furniture that children can climb but are not stable enough, such as bookshelves, narrow and tall cabinets, etc. As for hidden dangers such as sharp knives, angular places, power plugs, etc., there is no need to say more.

Is it enough to just tell children that going into the water is dangerous?

Some parents may think that they can let their children play in the water when they are older and more sensible, educate them more, let them understand the risks of drowning, and then let them play in the water without worry. Unfortunately, this approach does not always work, because children are not "miniature adults", they are often more impulsive, underestimate the risks, and easily ignore their parents' education.

According to statistics, drowning occurs mainly in indoor containers such as washbasins and bathtubs for children aged 1 to 4, while for children aged 5 to 9, it mostly occurs in canals, ponds, and reservoirs. After the age of 10, it mainly occurs in ponds, lakes, and rivers.

From these "trajectories", we can clearly see that as children learn to walk, their independence and adventurous spirit continue to grow, the scope of exploration and experimentation becomes wider and wider, and the opportunities for contact with open water bodies become more and more. However, even if parents often remind them, children still lack knowledge and experience. For example, they do not understand the dangers of wind and waves, tides, sudden mountain torrents, etc., and they are not aware that natural water bodies are complex and far from as safe as swimming pools, and they are not aware of the risk of drowning.

In addition, there are gender differences in drowning. Data shows that the drowning mortality rate of boys is higher than that of girls, which is consistent with the impression that boys are often more "naughty".

A child is trying to retrieve a football that has fallen into the water. Source: Technical Guidelines for Child Drowning Intervention

In addition, many young children will call their friends when playing in the water, and parents think there is no need to follow them when they see so many people. However, this poses a great risk. On the one hand, children will be bolder when there are more people, and will dare to challenge more risky places. On the other hand, there is often peer pressure among friends. Some children who are not very good at swimming are afraid of being laughed at for being timid, so they often go into the water anyway, which can also lead to danger.

What's worse is that when one child is drowning, the children around him/her are likely to spontaneously rush forward and hold hands to rescue him/her, which may often result in several children drowning together.

Image source: Peninsula.net

So if we protect our children and let them play in safe waters, will everything be fine? The following news, which is both scary and a little funny, can answer this question...

Image source: Hubei Fire Department

Therefore, as parents, we should personally supervise our children, especially young children, when they are playing in the water, and not be distracted by looking at mobile phones or leaving their children to do other things.

Can I still let my child learn to swim?

Some parents may be more cautious and think that since the saying goes "Those who know how to swim can drown", why not just not let their children go into the water? Isn't that safer?

Some people have actually tried this. For example, in Bangladesh, due to the dense water bodies and large number of poor people, 18,000 teenagers aged 5 to 17 drowned every year. Later, Bangladesh launched the SwimSafe project, offering swimming courses and community swimming training in many areas, allowing participating children to swim 25 meters independently and tread water for 90 seconds.

According to the report of the project, the drowning mortality rate in areas where such courses are offered has dropped by 50%. It should be noted that this type of swimming training is not just about teaching children to swim, the coaches will also teach children about the characteristics and dangers of natural water bodies.

Of course, for young children, this method of teaching swimming is not very effective, and they still need careful supervision from their parents.

What else can we do to prevent children from drowning?

There is no doubt that it is the responsibility of every parent to take good care of their children, but accidents may still happen to children due to carelessness. This requires the efforts of the whole society. We can do the following:

Improve the environment and enhance safety, such as installing fences around natural water bodies that are prone to risks to prevent children from entering.

Provide good signage and set up warning signs and other signs around water bodies that are not suitable for playing.

Manage engineering facilities well, such as reasonably setting up drainage channels and adding protective covers to wells.

To carry out popular science education well, schools, communities and families need to regularly popularize knowledge related to drowning prevention.

Life-saving equipment should always be available near dangerous water bodies.

Offer relevant courses to teach children of appropriate age to learn how to swim.

Check your home for hidden dangers.

Popularize basic first aid skills such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

In addition, it is important to emphasize that when playing at the beach, please go to the currently open bathing beaches, because these places have flat beaches, generally small winds and waves, and are relatively safe (please do not force your way in if the bathing beach is closed due to bad weather). Although many scenic spots are also at the seaside, the shore is steep and the waves are fierce. Not to mention children, adults can easily be swept away by the waves. There are often signs around such places such as "No entry to the sea" and "High waves are dangerous" . Don't climb over the guardrails to enter the sea in such places.

There are also some beaches that appear to be flat, but in fact the water conditions are complex and there are turbulent undercurrents, and there are no lifeguards or management personnel. Such places are also very dangerous, and there will be signs prohibiting people from entering the sea.

Image source: Weibo

To sum up, if you want to take your children to play by the water, parents must be alert, responsible, and never let their children out of their sight.

Planning and production

Author: Dingzhong Popular Science Writer

Reviewer: Wang Qian, Chief Physician of the Emergency Department, the Third Medical Center, PLA General Hospital

Editor: Ding Zong