Dry Drowning

This is really scary!

I saw the segment about this on The Today Show this morning! So scary!
The mother of that little boy said her and her son actually walked home from the pool, and after arriving home he was extremely tired and wanted to go to bed. She assumed he was exhausted from all the pool activity. He "drowned" in his sleep.

Read the article. There are signs to look for. Who would have thought it possible??

Wow, I've never heard of this. Thanks for sharing.

There is no way to be a perfect mother, but a million ways to be a good one!

I can't believe this. My son plays in the bathtub before he goes to bed and since the bathtub doesn't plug up I let the shower run. I'm always watching him but I have never heard or would of thought something like this could happen. I have to lay down with him to go to sleep but sometimes I fall asleep before he does this is really scary. I guess I will try to make sure he falls asleep with no problem. Thank god I know CPR

It is good to get this out there so that there will be less of these drowning. Thanks for sharing that article.

Cruz Family Day Care
~Samantha Cruz

Mommy of 2 wild boys and love every minute of it.

Wow....I wonder if this is kinda similiar to 'aspirated' pneumonia?

I will have to share this with my husband becuase our girls LOVES to be tossed around when in the pool...

Thanks for sharing.

H~
Mom of 2 Daughters - Kelly (3 yrs) and Skylar (21 mos old)
zoostationu2@hotmail.com

Thank you very much for sharing this. How sad, I cannot imagine his mother's pain. I am going to do some more research on this. I had never heard of this either but I am completely horrified.

Jennifer is a discussion leader for arizonamoms.com and mommy to four beautiful girls who range from 9 to 4 years of age.

Thanks for sharing, that is awful but good to know.

OMG! I'm having a pool party this weekend! Ugh! My kids swim with their cousins for hours at a time and they are all tired when they get out. My 5 yr old frequently falls asleep on the way home, showing a lot of fatigue, because his anti-seizure meds cause fatigue anyway. How on Earth are we to know?!

I guess from now on, we will be asking the kids 5 minutes and 30 minutes after getting out of the pool, if they are having any trouble breathing. It will be harder to tell with a toddler, but maybe everyone should get in the habit of asking their kids, so that the kids learn a baseline to compare to. Maybe we should have the kids each blow up a balloon after swimming, so that we moms can tell if there's any marked difference.

Thanks for sharing this article. My heart just breaks for that poor mom!

Do you think that the boy had a greater chance of inhailing water, because it was his first time swimming?

I wonder if water slides (into the pool) pose a greater risk of breathing in water?

"Only a life lived for others, is the life worthwhile" - Albert Einstein

Thanks for posting this. I just came to this site to post this myself, as I just read the article. I had never heard of this before. It's another thing to keep me awake at night. As is likely the case with many of us, my kids swim daily. It's important for us to know what to watch for.

Wow this is really scary. I think we had a case out here in AZ I remember reading about. A young girl had almost drowned in a swimming pool. Her parents pulled her out and she seemed ok. They even got her out of her wet clothes. She died suddenly about an hour later.

DD 3 years old brand new baby Luke David born 6/9/08 9lb 1oz 21 1/2 inches long

The other night after swim lessons (much later, like once they were in bed), both my kids vomitted a lot of liquid. We assumed since both did it, it was some kind of flu, or due to exhaustion from the lessons. Now, we can't be sure. It's scary!

Lovemy4 is a discussion leader for North Central Phoenix, tired mother of 4 great kids and wife to one great husband.

Thanks for sharing. This is definitely the season to be aware of this.

jesshod is a mommy to 2 girls (ages 6 and 1) and is an arizonamoms.com discussion leader living in Surprise.

I talked to a friend who is a repiratory therapist. She says that in four years at a major hospital in AZ, where nearly every house has a pool, she's never seen this. It's obviously very rare.

She also strongly believes that in the case of this tragedy, the mother must have overlooked obvious signs of respiratory distress. She said that the child would have been bending over trying to take in more air, wheezing, sounding winded when he talked, speaking incoherently, and been so tired, as to have difficulty standing. She said that even while sleeping, his neck would have been distended, with each attempted breath. She also said that he must have gagged and choaked when he initially inhaled the water.

Now, the article says that the boy went to bed right away and if his room was upstairs, or far from others, they may have had a hard time hearing him in trouble.

This is such an awful story, and I know it made me completely paranoid to let kids swim today! But, after talking with my friend, I felt much better and felt like, although extrememly unlikely as it might be, I had a sense of exactly what to look for in a child.

"Only a life lived for others, is the life worthwhile" - Albert Einstein

How bizarre! Now another thing for mommies to worry about!

Hobbymommy, 38, is a discussion leader from Mesa. She is a happy stay-at-home mommy to a 3-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son.

This is so scary! My mom told me about this today and I immediately checked out the story online. I think what you have to be careful of is if your child takes in water & starts coughing. I remember when my kids were in swimming lessons (when they were toddlers) and the instructor said twice was the limit for taking in water - then they needed to get out of the pool. It's a good rule to follow. Maybe because this child was older the mother wasn't aware of how much water he had taken in. I feel so sad for her!

Lattemom is the mother of three energetic kids ages 6, 8 & 12 and a discussion leader for arizonamoms.com.

Thank you so much for this post. I had never heard of this before as it appears most people have not. I just wish there was more information regarding this topic.

JuneSlager is a discussion leader for arizonamoms.com, raising three children (ages 15, 14, & 11) in Northeast Phoenix.

For those of you, like me, looking for more information on this subject. Check out the following website: http://www.nrsweb.com/safety_tips/dry_drowning.asp
I found the Editor's notes to be especially informative.

JuneSlager is a discussion leader for arizonamoms.com, raising three children (ages 15, 14, & 11) in Northeast Phoenix.