By Heather O.

1. One more thing for my wife to worry about. Thanks a lot, Heather!

   Comment #1 by RayJune 14th, 2008 at 8:24 am

2. Wow. That’s really scary. I’m going to keep a closer eye on my kiddos in the bath after reading this.

   Comment #2 by MommaJune 14th, 2008 at 9:14 am

3. OK, Heather. This is really going to make me crazy. My kids have started going to the pool now at least a couple of times a week, including a swimming unit in their PE classes. Something more to worry about!! :-0

   Comment #3 by meemsJune 14th, 2008 at 11:11 am

4. Scary. That’s it, I’m putting a large bubble over my house and nobody’s coming or going!

   Comment #4 by AbbyJune 14th, 2008 at 11:41 am

5. Freaky, huh? My brother-in-law sent me that link.

   My pediatrician had never even heard of this, that’s how rare it is.

   Comment #5 by Emily CJune 14th, 2008 at 1:04 pm

6. Um, thanks, Heather.

   Comment #6 by The WizJune 14th, 2008 at 1:34 pm

7. Well, a kid has a one in one hundred chance of being born with a heart defect. A one in 280,000 chance of being struck by lightning. A one in 53 million chance of dying any time you get on a commercial airplane. I think I’ll worry about those first.

   Comment #7 by ResearcherJune 14th, 2008 at 2:39 pm

8. Not to WORRY about, ladies. Just think about. And be aware. Awareness is always good.

   Comment #8 by Heather O.June 14th, 2008 at 6:35 pm

9. Happy Father’s day to your DH Heather! Anyway, i join LDS.NET and found out that the web administrator there is named Heather, so I ask her if she’s the same Heather who is blogging in Mormon Mommy Wars. She said ’she’s not’ but she asked for a link so I gave her.

   Happy Father’s Day to all father’s who might stumble the “mommy’s blog site”

   Comment #9 by kenjebzJune 14th, 2008 at 8:24 pm

10. I feel for the family, and don’t want to downplay the danger of drowning… but a 10-year-old soiling himself is a pretty strong indicator of distress. Other news reports of dry-drowning have talking about “swallowing water”… which has nothing to do with dry drowning at all. (If a child swallows enough water, they can get water intoxication - another danger to worry about - tell your kids never to have water-drinking contests - but I’ll leave you to research that on your own). Being educated is a good thing, but don’t get paranoid; your chances of your not knowing that your child has severe lung damage from aspirating water is pretty slim. And there are much more common dangers - like auto accidents - to worry about.

    Comment #10 by JoyJune 15th, 2008 at 11:26 am

11. Joy-

    Thanks for weighing in. I thought the same thing about swallowing water–which even this news report misinterpreted to mean aspiration, which, as you’ve pointed out, is not the same thing at all. J’s very first swim teacher warned me about water intoxication, and even pulled kids out of the water during lessons because she felt they had swallowed too much while learning to go under, etc. So I was aware of the water intoxication–the “drowning”–not so much. I would have, of course, assumed that aspiration of chlorinated water would more likely result in pneumonia rather than such a dramatic death.

    Comment #11 by Heather O.June 15th, 2008 at 6:06 pm

12. The terminology is really pretty confusing. “Dry-drowning” usually refers to victims of drowning who, on autopsy, don’t have significant amounts of water in their lungs, suggesting that the oxygen deprivation that led to their death resulted from laryngospasm, and not water inhalation. In the recent South Carolina case, it sounds like the boy actually developed a case of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) as a result of the aspiration - and a rapidly progressing case of it. Why this happened, I don’t think anyone understands - it’s certainly not a common reaction to aspirating a bit of pool water.

    Comment #12 by JoyJune 16th, 2008 at 2:44 pm

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