Tuesday started out as ordinary as any other day, but ended with our family shaken to the core. In the span of 30 seconds, my 16 month old son nearly drowned right before my eyes
How My Toddler Nearly Drowned in a Bucket of Water
October has been unseasonably warm with temperatures reaching well into the 90s in the afternoons. We’ve been continuing our favorite summer pastime of playing “bucket of water.”
We went out to the back patio to play. On this fateful day, I filled up the tub of water more than I normally do because I was feeling pretty lazy and didn’t want to get up to refill it. The tub was actually overflowing with water because my four year old wanted to keep the hose running.
She was diligently scrubbing down her picnic table down while my 16 month old played with the water in the bucket. I sat on the patio, a few feet away to work on my computer.
My toddler loves airplanes and looks up to the sky and points anytime one flies overhead. I looked over and saw him pointing, looking up to the sky, with his back to the tub full of water.
I looked over at my 4 year old washing her table. “You missed a spot on the leg,” I told her as she quickly got back to work.
I looked down at my computer and started to write a sentence for my blog …”I’m a go-getter. Failure is not an option.”
Then I glanced up from my computer toward my toddler and the bucket and my heart stopped. My world collapsed. My inner voice began screaming at me.
All I saw were his two little feet, with blue neoprene water shoes on, sticking straight up out of the bucket.
Adrenaline Kicks In
My mother’s instincts kicked in and with a rush of adrenaline I threw my computer off of my lap and took three huge steps over to the bucket of water.
It took me half of a second to look down and orient myself enough to reach down and pick him up.
I realized that he had tripped and fell backward into the tub and was fully submerged in the water, basically in a headstand, with only the lower part of his legs and feet sticking up outside of the water.
I plunged my hands into the water, pulled him up by his armpits and looked at his face. Eyes closed. Lips blue. Body limp.
I worked as a lifeguard for several years. I know CPR, and I know what to do in a drowning. But nothing prepares you to see your own child unconscious.
I didn’t have any time to think about what I should do, my body just took over. I turned him over with my hand supporting his face and him laid him across my left arm and supported him with my leg. I began to strike him on the back.
It took three or four times and then finally the gush of water expelled itself from his mouth followed by lots of coughing and a very welcome screaming fit.
A Positive Outcome
Within minutes, he was breathing normally and the color returned to his face. We headed to the emergency room as a precaution to check for any water in his lungs because I remember reading about secondary drowning happening after taking in large amounts of water.
They did a chest x-ray and thank goodness everything checked out fine. We were back home in a few hours with a happy toddler and a happy ending.
But I couldn’t shake the image of his body in the water from my mind. How could that happen when I was sitting right there?
What Drowning Looks Like
I’ve always heard that children can drown in as little as one inch of water, but I guess I never really believed it. It just doesn’t seem possible. I’m here to tell you that is is possible, and it can happen.
I’m a good mom. I worked as a lifeguard for several years. I’m vigilant about water safety. But my son nearly drowned in a small bucket of water while playing just a few yards away from me.
This frightful experience has taught me a lot. One of the biggest lessons is that drowning doesn’t look like it does in the movies.
In a mere 30 seconds, my son tripped, fell backward into a bucket, had his face and lungs filled with water and stopped breathing. All while I was sitting right there. In complete silence.
There was no splash, no screaming and no signs of distress.
How to Prevent a Child From Drowning
We’re using this experience as an opportunity to make some changes in our family, and I hope others can learn from this as well. Here are three things we’ll be doing:
1. Never leave a child unattended near water.
Just 10 minutes before our near-drowning incident, I walked into the house to get my computer and fill up a water bottle.
I’ve left my kids playing with a bucket of water on the patio while I cooked lunch inside or folded laundry always thinking they would scream if something happened and they needed me.
Now I know that drowning can happen in complete silence and within seconds. The National Drowning Prevention Alliance recommends that when infants and toddlers are around the water, adults provide “touch supervision” and always be within an arms reach.
If I had not been within arm’s reach, our outcome could have been totally different.
2. Learn and practice CPR on a regular basis.
I’ve taken several CPR classes over the years from my years working as a lifeguard or at a daycare in college. We even took an infant CPR class before my oldest started eating solids because I was paranoid about choking.
In the heat of the moment, I had no clue what to do. My instinct told me to turn him over and pat his back to get the water out of his lungs. If that didn’t work, I’m not sure I would have known what to do next. It is so important to take a CPR class and practice regularly.
To start, learn hands-only CPR in just two minutes with this video. You never know who’s life you could save.
3. Teach my kids to swim.
Though knowing how to swim wouldn’t have helped in this instance, I can’t help but think of what could happen if one of my kids stumbles into a pool or another body of water.
It happens so fast. They need to know what to do to stay afloat. Learn how to teach babies and toddlers to swim and you won’t regret it.
Another Lesson Learned
As soon as I picked my toddler up out of the water and saw his condition, I yelled for my 4 year old to go get my phone from the living room. She ran inside, but couldn’t find it.
Fifteen minutes later after I was able to get Preston breathing and calmed down, I had to use the “Find My Phone” app on my laptop to find that my phone had fallen down in the crevice of a couch cushion where my four year old wasn’t able to see it.
Landlines are becoming obsolete, but this is a huge reason to consider one. We now have a centrally located landline phone and teach our children where it is and how to use it.
We talk about what to do in an emergency and practice calling 9-1-1. Use a practice telephone or an app for practicing dialing 9-1-1 on a cell phone.
It Can Happen To You
Drowning is the leading cause of death for infants and young children between the ages of 1-4. It almost happened to our family, and it can happen to anyone.
Please watch your children closely- not just at the pool or the beach. But in the bathtub, around toilets and buckets of water. I’m so thankful my toddler is fine and won’t have any lasting effects from this incident. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.
Please share and spread the word that we need to keep our kids safe around any amount of water!
This hits close to home. My 16 month old was in a bucket of water this summer too. At the time, she was 12 months. I had put the bucket next to the kids pool so she didn’t feel.left out. In a matter of seconds/minute she had crawled out of the bucket, into the bigger pool and was floating, blue, unconscious, and not breathing. I am CPR trained in adults and children and it didn’t help, I was too panicked. I was with a friend who is an LPN though. She did CPR, I called 911.
We dis he her breathing and we did end up in the picu for 2 nights. They did have to intubate for one night to allow her brain to take it easy so to speak.
She is now quite healthy happy and has no ill effects from the accident.
So scary, Meghann. I’m glad y’all acted quickly and are sharing your experience with others. I’m all too guilty of taking my eyes of the girls when they’re playing with water, too.
I’m do sorry this happened to your family. I’m glass he’s OK and you have a plan to prevent this from ever happening again.
As a survivor of a childhood near drowning that almost cost me my life, I can attest to how quickly it can happen. I was 6 when I went down a water slide and couldn’t swim up to the surface. I spent weeks in a semi coma at aa hospital with no brain activity. Thanks a great hospital team and my mom’s intuition, I was able to wake up and make a full recovery despite being read my last rights and taken off a ventilator. My only lasting issue is asthma.
Thank u for this important information..im so glad everything ended up ok with ur baby…-Thank God
Thank you for this reminder. Although it wasn’t the in a bucket, what happened to my son right in front of me still shakes me to the core. I was at a friends pool for the first time with my 5 and 7 year olds, there were two other 5 year old there. The three moms sat at the edge of the pool and chatted, I remember glancing up constantly as my 5 year old wasn’t yet swimming and I didn’t want her to feel left out as the others were great swimmers. My 7 year old had learned to swim one on one lessons a few year previous and spent most of his time underwater swimming, a very confident swimmer. Suddenly I looked up to see my son trying to stay above the water, the other two five year olds were climbing on him and he couldn’t stay above the water. In slow motion it seems I screamed to get off him and he began to swim to the edge, his arms were barely working, I pulled him out with such ease, I was running on adrenaline. He opened his mouth and a huge rush of water came out. We were both crying and I have to say the other moms were dumbstruck and just stared while I screamed and panicked. I took him to the ER to be checked and he slept in my bed for the next week as I was so afraid of secondary drowning. Teacher your children not to climb on others, sit with your legs in the water to watch them, on the side with others is not good enough, it’s too distracting to have a conversation. The 5 year girls didn’t know he were drowning him, my daughter looked on without telling me, she didn’t know either, it looked like they were playing. There was no noise, no cry for help or arm waving, just a little boy bobbing up and down in the water, with children in either side of him. It must have been just a few seconds but it felt like a lifetime.
These stories are frightening. As a child I was in a water donut when it flipped and I stayed with my head down and my feet up for a few seconds until my dad whisked me out. I remember feeling trapped. I was on vacation surrounded by people. Drownings are quiet.
That is so scary Dara! Water can be so fun, but we do need to be vigilant because we can’t control other people or accidents. Thank you for sharing your story too!