A couple of weeks ago we posted a link to a hugely informative and potentially lifesaving blog post we found in our everyday scouring of the entire internet for useful child safety information. (OK, that's an exaggeration, but we do get around.) This particular post was about the fact that a person who is drowning does not flail their arms around and splash and scream. They slip under the water, resurface, and slip back under. Struggling is in fact pre-drowning behavior, which may or may not occur, but the fact that actually not getting enough air in the lungs prevents you from doing all of the things that get people saved in movies has tremendous consequences for our behavior. It also goes a long way to explaining how children so often drown in pools when their parents are home, or in bathtubs when their parents are feet or even inches away. Well-written, accurate, and surprising, the post was just the kind of news and information we try to highlight in the regular links we send to ZRecs feed and email subscribers. The post has received over 500 comments to date and its publication bookended a pair of truly tragic infant drownings within weeks of its appearance, and the author has since followed up with a post about mitigating home pool hazards.

Reader Lindsey replied to our posting of the link with a story of her own:

This struck a chord with me since my son had a near drowning incident in March during a swimming class, with 4 instructors in the pool with him. They all had their attention directed away from him while he was struggling in water that was 4 feet deep - just a little too deep for him to touch. He was only a couple of feet from the edge but couldn't make it there. I was watching from the balcony, where parents are required to sit during lessons, and saw the whole thing. Fortunately, one of the instructors turned around and noticed him in time. Like this article says, he didn't make a sound, but he was traumatized by the event and afterward was asking me if people die when their feet can't touch the bottom of the pool. Very scary!

Please, parents, watch your children closely around pools or any accessible water play area, do not assume that pool covers or fences will prevent a child from gaining access, and never leave an infant or young toddler unattended in the bathtub. And if you aren't yet a subscriber to our blog - which will not only get you access to stories we find like the one above, but also keep you abreast of our blogging on the rare occasions that we temporarily go dark, as we have over the past two weeks (we missed you!) please feel free to do sign up. We offer a full, not excerpted, feed of posts and links in RSS or email format, and our email digests arrive once each day content is published, packaged up with whatever links to outside content we've found that day.