[Music]
by now you've probably heard about the
heart-wrenching story of Olympic skier
bode Miller's 19 month old daughter who
drowned when she slipped into a
neighbor's pool Bodie and his wife are
speaking out to help raise awareness
about child drownings so no parent has
to go through a similar tragedy and
joining us now to talk with us about the
importance of teaching your children
swim safety is Mary Kirsch is the owner
of aquatic adventures Swim School thank
you so much for being here
thank you for having me yeah you know
drowning is number one cause of death
and children ages 1 to 4 we talk about
car seat safety we talk about
vaccinations but we don't talk about
drowning why is that I don't really know
to be honest I mean we I think that as
new parents were inundated with so much
information on so many different levels
and that you know you focus on the
vaccines that we're talking about with
the doctors on a daily basis we're
putting our kids in car seats as they're
leaving the hospital so these are the
things that you're dealing with them an
everyday basis but swimming is something
that people think of as seasonal so it
doesn't really come to the forefront of
our mind until the weather starts to
turn warm and the pools start to open
but it is something that we should be
focused on all year long yeah and why
should parents know about drowning the
parents should know about drowning
because it is the number one cause of
unintentional death for children ages 1
to 4 in the u.s. number 1 yeah I mean if
it's the leading cause of death why
aren't we talking about it more right
right so we should be took talking about
it and understanding so and for every
one child that dies due to drowning up
to five children are required
hospitalization due to near drowning
incidences and more than 50% of those
kids suffer permanent lifelong damage
due to those incidences it's tragic yeah
it's tragic
why did you personally start your swim
school so in college when I was got my
first apartment I'd been a swimmer my
whole life competitive swimmer and
didn't really think much about the fact
that people didn't know how to swim and
I met this woman who was a neighbor and
she had two young kids and she talked
about her fears that her daughter and
her son couldn't swim and we discussed
it and I was leaving for the summer and
I said well if you can't find something
this summer you know when I come back in
the fall I'll teach her at a swim I'll
just take her to the school and do it
for free she drowned that summer
and it for me that impact of oh my gosh
why didn't I step in sooner and I
started researching and I thought why
didn't I know about this how come it was
just something that I took for granted
and and it changed my life it changed
the course of my life and it's been a
mission for me ever since yeah let's
talk about the importance of you know
taking swim lessons and and what age can
they be introduced to the water and
learn okay so swimming lessons we
definitely want to start at the age that
it's most critical for them so that's
the ages wanted for the American Academy
of Pediatrics has recently started to
suggest that children children should
start formal swimming lessons around the
age of 1 Wow so we definitely get really
young they're not even walking it does
seem well sometimes so you are walking
yeah I say if your child can crawl they
can get to the water so once our kids
start moving and they're crawling and
they have the ability to be
independently moving to something that
poses a danger so we start that's when
we really start to do all the safety
precautions around our house we start
driving with your finger well now we
need to start teaching them all of the
things that they need to know because if
they go to the water they need to know
how to handle themselves yeah I saw some
videos that you have taken before it's
remarkable to see these babies get into
the water and then they you teach them
to get on their back right so why is
that important well we that's how we
survive if we are swimming underwater we
can't breathe so we need to roll to our
back and be able to float so that we can
survive and that is not it that's not
going to keep them there forever it's
gonna give the parents a chance to some
time enough time to get in there and
save them so we don't want to ever think
that we can put your improve any child
because there's no such thing as drown
proofing
anybody can drown yes so we've got to
constantly be aware this is giving you
an extra added layer of protection yeah
now let's talk about precautionary
measures that parents need to take
around a pool I mean with Bode Miller in
there and his wife they were doing
everything that they were supposed to do
with the gate right they were at a
neighbor's home right so all the
precautionary measures they were there
for them in their home yeah but what we
have to do is remember that when we go
outside of our home outside of our
controlled environment we have to stay
vigilant so what do we need to do well a
we need to teach our children how to
swim B we need to know what our water
environment
and we need to be prepared for that so
for a delay core open water we need to
have PFDs on our children and they need
to be properly fitted PFDs so don't ever
just like your car seat
we don't want to age up we don't age up
or size up for a PFF right so make sure
it's properly fitted it's it's $30 and
it's worth the 30 it is worth it
absolutely so we want to make sure that
the kids are comfortable and they
understand it we don't ever want to take
for granted that somebody else is
watching our children so anytime you're
around the water should have a
designated water watcher a water watcher
is an adult who knows how to swim who is
their sole responsibility is to be in
charge of the children Mary thank you so
much and there's so much more out there
aquatic adventure swim school calm thank
you I'll be right back thanks