Starting younger

SUMMERVILLE -- Michelle and Jake Zieg of Summerville have lived the nightmare -- one that some parents fear the most.

On June 6, 2008, the Ziegs were home sick and their two boys, ages 3 and 17 months, slipped out the back door. In the minutes of unusual quiet, the couple realized their sons were gone and Jake rushed out to look for them. The elder boy, Nathaniel, was running back in and Jake asked where the younger one, Brayden, was.

Nathaniel pointed toward the pool. There, Brayden was face down in the water.

Jake pulled him out, called 911 and tried CPR. Emergency crews arrived and did the same. But it was too late. Brayden had passed away.

The ensuing two years have been filled with grief and fear, but the weekend of July Fourth marked a milestone. The entire Zieg family got back in the water and are ready to proceed as advocates for water safety skills for young children with an organization called "Because of BRAYDEN" (Building Resources & Awareness of Youth Drownings through Encouragement & Networking). They want to raise awareness of the need to educate very young children to swim.

"It's been a very hard two years," says Michelle Zieg. "There's been a lot of guilt and shame. There are still bad days, but I'll always remember my husband and I thinking that horrible night (of Brayden's death) that something good has got to come from this."

Advising earlier lessons

The American Academy of Pediatrics, in the July edition of the peer-reviewed, scientific journal "Pediatrics," changed its recommendations on water instruction for children ages 12 months to 4 years and reinforced that most children age 4 and older should learn to swim.

In the past, the AAP advised against swimming lessons for children ages 12 months to 3 years because there was little evidence that lessons prevented drowning or resulted in better swim skills. Additionally, the group was concerned parents would become less vigilant about supervising a child who had learned some swimming skills.

But new evidence shows that children ages 12 months to 4 years may be less likely to drown if they have had formal swimming instruction. The studies don't define what type of lessons work best, so the AAP is not recommending mandatory swim lessons for all children in the age group at this time.

Instead, the new guidance recommends that parents should decide whether to enroll an individual child in swim lessons based on the child's frequency of exposure to water, emotional development, physical abilities, and certain health concerns related to pool water infections and pool chemicals.

In making the changes, the AAP noted that drowning rates have fallen steadily from 2.68 per 100,000 in 1985 to 1.32 per 100,000 in 2006, but that drowning continues to be the second leading cause of death for children under age 19 and the leading cause of accidental death for children ages 6 and under. In 2006, 1,100 children died from drowning.

Instruction options

Options for teaching young children, ages 6 months to 6 years, in the Charleston area range from fairly intensive Infant Swimming Resource classes to standard American Red Cross Parent & Child Aquatics.

Earlier this year, Becky Bentz became the first ISR-certified instructor in South Carolina and, just by word of mouth, she's already got a waiting list of 100 children.

ISR emphasizes self-rescue by primarily teaching young children how to roll over in water, float face up, rest and breathe, and then to roll over and swim, horizontally and face down, to a wall, ladder or other safe surface. Lessons take place daily, five days a week, 10 minutes at a time, for typically four to six weeks. Proficiency is earned when a child can do it fully clothed -- wearing winter clothes and shoes.

Bentz says the lessons often require retraining many techniques that are used by parents to keep children safe, such as having children swim to a parent or an adult and the wearing of flotation devices that tend to provide a false sense of security and to teach a child to stay vertical, not horizontal, in the water.

"Swimming horizontally is an effective, safe way to swim because it makes it easier to rotate on their back and breathe," says Bentz, who like all ISR instructors was thoroughly screened and had to take an intensive six-week course that cost $12,500 to complete.

As a result, the lessons are relatively more expensive -- $105 to register and typically $15 per lesson.

The American Red Cross instruction is less expensive but also less focused directly on children under age 6.

Frank De Aragon, a volunteer Red Cross instructor trainer, says its Water Safety Instructor certification involves a 36-hour course that teaches a range of safety and swimming lesson skills, ranging from Parent & Child Aquatics starting at 6 months old to Levels 5 and 6 (refining strokes, diving, fitness swimming) for older youths and adults. The lessons cost less, typically $35 to $50, for an entire level.

As for Parent & Child, De Aragon says that the instruction includes teaching parents how to train a child's motor skills for water safety.

Supervision is best

All involved stress that the No. 1 prevention against child drownings is keen adult supervision -- and not just around pools, lakes and the surf.

Charleston County Coroner Rae Wooten says children can drown in bathtubs and buckets of water, but through her experience, she is an advocate for teaching young children self-rescue techniques.

"Once a little one can crawl, they put themselves at risk of drowning and it always kills my soul when a child dies unnecessarily," says Wooten. "Tragedies will always happen, but we can reduce the numbers by teaching infants swimming, not Olympic swimming, but ways they can save their own lives."

Michelle Zieg says that her children, Nathaniel and 19-month-old Elliana, have completed ISR training, but she and those who teach child water safety say that adults should never let their guard down.

"Even when a bunch of adults are together, one has to be a designated water-watcher with 100 percent of their attention directed to the kids in the water."

Dr. Jeffrey Weiss, lead author of the American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement and technical report, says parents need to think in terms of "layers of protection."

"Children need to learn to swim," Weiss says. "But even advanced swimming skills cannot 'drown-proof' a child of any age. Parents must also closely supervise their children around water and know how to perform CPR. A four-sided fence around the pool is essential."