Secondary drowning

[Hoping4peanut]

Ugh...my anxious mom brain is gonna do me in one of these days. I hate it. But nevertheless I am coming here with a concern. Please be kind. I know I am most likely overreacting.

So I unfortunately read a bunch of articles last summer about secondary drowning...that is the mindset

Last night in the tub little one was sitting in the bath. We have been pouring water over her head not terribly worried since she was little. Not worried about it getting in her face. She has never been terribly phased.

Last night though she gasped when I did it and now I am worried about secondary drowning. It was a small cupful of water. Not sure how much she took in.

Now I can't stop worrying about it. She seems fine except for a bit of crankiness and also a runny nose today.

I wish I had never read that dumb article

 

[misspriss]

I wish I knew more, but I remember DS gasps everytime he gets water over his face, like a reflex? I hope everything is okay!

 

[Tigerlilyb]

Gasping when you get water on your head is a reflex and a small amount of bath water won't do any harm. Secondary drowning is more to do with the chemicals in the pool water and the body's inability to break them down. I think!

I know where you're coming from though, I read the same article and it's always in the back of my head.

 

[cookette]

I just went through something like this the other night.

Mesa was in the bath in her sling, and I had one hand on her while I reached across tehe tub for her shampoo. Never let go, never turned away. At that exact moment, she did a swan dive off the side of the sling. I grabbed her IMMEDIATELY and flipped her upside down and water ran out....I still almost pee my pants thinking of it. She seems totally fine, smiles and giggles...but Im still so paranoid.

 

[mel28nicole]

I was gonna say, I hope in the tub it doesn't matter. Literally everytime DD has a bath water runs down her face and she gasps for air for a second. Multiple times because she refused to let me tilt her head back. She's been like this since a round 5 months when she was sitting up in the tub

 

[Larkspur]

Argh, I understand. I read the same stupid article and felt sick every time one of my kids got a face full of water in the bath or at the beach and spluttered a bit.

So I went back and REALLY read about secondary drowning. The comment that had been sticking in my mind was the one in that story on the HuffPo where the mother claims a doctor said "Some parents put their kids to bed and then never know why their children don't wake up." That scared me, but also didn't sit right with me. I'm an editor by trade, part of my job is to spot inaccuracies. I felt I couldn't quite believe that there was this silent epidemic of children dying in their sleep from secondary drowning, and the first I was hearing of it was from an unnamed doctor making an offhand comment that ended up on the HuffPo via a mommyblog.

Well, that's because there's not. I followed links and trawled sources and read studies and the only examples I could find of recorded deaths from "secondary drowning" were ones where the children had basically already drowned in the first place. Like, spent a minimum of four or more minutes under the water, were hauled out unconscious, revived, then later died. There's absolutely no published evidence that I could find that secondary drowning occurs in any except the most extreme near-drowning scenarios.

I am very sorry for the mother who wrote that story about her son who got dunked in the spa and had to go to hospital for low oxygen saturation later, and I'm very glad her son is okay. But I get the feeling she has downplayed her responsibility a little. First she says she turned her back on him for "no more than five seconds" and in that time he ended up underwater at the other end of the spa. Later she says he was underwater for around 20 seconds. That's a hell of a difference. I don't find her to be a completely reliable witness. Also, who doesn't take a kid who spent 20 seconds underwater to the A&E for a checkup?! I would not describe myself as a paranoid mum (like the writer says she is), but that would be an immediate doctor's visit for sure for me.

That said, of course vigilance around water is important. But I think this article caused a lot of unnecessary panic. I'm kind of an old hand on these boards now, and I've seen several posts about mums freaking out because their baby choked on some water in the bath. I feel pretty confident in saying that unless you left the room and came back to find your child submerged under the water, you have nothing to worry about.

 

[Hoping4peanut]

You are amazing larkspur! Thank you for you post! You made me feel so much much better! The articles that freak me out the most are ones you mentioned!

 

[superfrizbee]

Nothing much more to add after Larkspur's excellent post but there does have to be a pretty significant amount of water in the lungs to cause secondary drowning. Also symptoms include extreme drowsiness/lethargy to the point where you struggle to rouse your child. Just wanted to add that for any posters concerned about it. Sorry you had such a scare and glad LO is ok