Celebs pregnancy cravingsThese celeb moms reveal their biggest pregnancy cravings!

Baby names finderNeed some inspiration for picking a baby name? Try out our new tool.

You are here : Parent24 : Parent24 : safety : safety : Drowning: The silent death

Drowning: The silent death

It can happen so quickly. You won't even hear it coming.

By Sumanda Maritz

Pic: iStockphoto.com

Article originally in Parent24

You can’t believe how quickly an accident happens. To tell you the truth I didn’t even hear him fall into the water. Of the 4 grownups sitting under the Lapa chatting, my husband was the only one to hear our 4 year old son almost drown.

We were spending the Sunday at my father’s house. With both a swimming pool and a fishpond, we were very alert as to where the children were and what they were doing. Both our boys are fascinated by water and fish and at one stage I had taken them away from the fishpond for throwing gravel in the water.

Later they asked to look at the fish again and we let them. The fishpond is not that far from where we were sitting. Except for the little dividing wall I was only a meter away from them. While we were talking, my husband suddenly got up and asked which kid had just fallen into the water. I looked through the hole in the wall behind me, to see my oldest son surfacing with a soft gasp and a bit of splashing. My husband raced around the wall and managed to drag our son out of the water by his collar after he went under a second time.

But that wasn’t what scared me. Not the fact that he fell in or that he wasn’t able to stand in the deep fishpond, but that I didn’t hear him. The noises that I had heard, sounded just like the gravel they were throwing in the pond. It was no louder than that. He didn’t cry-out, scream or anything. Just some splashing and a soft gasp. I shudder to think what would have happened if my husband hadn’t heard him.

Of course, he got a talking to. He was undressed, dried off and dressed in dry clothes before we even considered calming him, thanks to the adrenalin rush both mommy and daddy experienced. We also gave him something for the shock. His 2 year old brother had crawled onto the wall of the fishpond to try and help him. He was crying just as hard as his brother after he was pulled out of the water.

I am hoping that this has been a memorable event for both boys and that they will be more careful in future. But just to be on the safe side, I’ve decided to look into drowning for more information.

Have you lost your child to a drowning accident?