By Lauren Rowe, Physician Mother
We were at a neighborhood pool party and my Mother in law was “on duty” watching my 5 yo and 9 yo in the pool. Both swimmers, no life vests. I look over and she is talking to someone facing them and not the pool! I look in the pool and there are tons of floats and rafts and a dark bottom and I spot my 9 yo but not my 5 yo. In a matter of seconds I’m looking all over and she comes up in the shallow end sputtering and coughing. A bigger kid led her to the deep end on a raft and she fell in but panicked and didn’t just swim to the ledge. Apparently, the older girl tried to “help” her and swam to the shallow end dragging my daughter under water the whole way! The moral is obvious here but doesn’t happen as often as it should! My lesson is my kids my eyes need to be on them.
