By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief—Most children love water, from splashing in puddles to throwing rocks into streams to just playing in the bathtub (a favorite activity of one of my boys was to stand on a chair at the kitchen sink and “wash dishes” with mounds of bubbles). Keeping them away from potentially dangerous situations around water requires constant vigilance when they’re young and repeated warnings as they get older. But often that’s not enough. Too many children drown or nearly drown each year in backyard swimming pools. U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows drowning as the second leading cause of death from unintentional injuries among children ages one to 14.

Last Friday, there was an especially heart-wrenching story: one-year-old twin boys both drowned in a backyard pool in Northern California. Their mother found them, pulled them out of the pool, and tried to revive them but was unsuccessful. I can’t imagine the depths of her grief.

We tend to think that it’s only the large, in-ground swimming pools that pose a hazard. But a recent study  by pool management by United Pools, documents that danger persists for all pools, including small backyard portable pools (wading pools, inflatable pools, soft-sided pop-up pools, etc). It […]