Prepare Your Toddlers So They Don't Drown - Interviewing an ISR Instructor (Infant Swimming Resource)
Hey TeamMax,
It’s your Uncle Max here, with another “Quick & Dirty, Done is Better Than Perfect” video. This time, we discuss how to prepare and train your kids the proper way to be in the water, So THEY DON’T DROWN!! Most of us have been doing it the wrong way. In fact, most of us learned the wrong way ourselves; that’s why there are so many drownings, not just of kids, but of adults.
We lost our second child, our 11 month old daughter, Leah, to an obstructed Airway incident much the same as drowning. When I'm ready, I'll share that story with you, but in the meantime, I don't want anyone to have to go through that. So stay tuned and learn some cool new facts about preventing drowning, not just in kids, but in adults.
I met a new friend, Lisa, who I call a sister from another mister, who had to leave her family and go to Florida for two months and became trained and certified to teach infant self rescue in an organization called Infant Swimming Resources (ISR), that's actually been around as long as I’ve been alive. Lisa has two people in her circle of influence that have family members that died from drowning, and my wife has a cousin that died from drowning. I remember a close call where I almost drowned when I was younger, because I didn’t know these skills.
If you had a loved one die from drowning, you would pay anything to get them back, so let's
“pay attention” right now so we don't have to go through that. “Not One More Child Drowns”
You can lock down your pool like a safe, like US Olympic Gold Medal Skier Bode Miller did, but his 19 month old daughter Emmy died from drowning at a neighbor’s pool. Now, they had their 6 month old trained in this life saving technique to STAY ALIVE.
Once they teach the basic skills, they then step it up a notch, and have them practice the skill with their summer clothes on (the vast majority of drownings are with kids fully dressed, something we never teach our kids to do, swim in your clothes), simulating falling in a pond, etc. Then they do it one better and teach them how to Swim, Float, Swim, by simulating them falling off a snowy bank or thin ice, and do it with their winter clothes on, coat and all.
Using Floaties, Water Wings, and anything that has their legs straight up & down in the water, conditions them the wrong way, and sets you kid up for drowning. Drowning is the #1 cause of deaths kids age 1-4, so let’s get our children properly trained to calmly solve their water dilemma, instead of panicking, sinking to the bottom, and drowning!