Drowning of British children abroad.

AIMS: To quantify the risks of British children drowning abroad. METHODS: The numbers of British children drowning abroad were estimated for 1996-2003 using the RoSPA/RLSS press cutting database. We compared these figures with the numbers of British children going abroad from the International Passenger Survey from the Office of National Statistics. RESULTS: Sixty-eight children (45 boys-23 Girls) drowned in the eight-year period: 48 (71%) in swimming pools (mostly in hotels). Allowing for exposure, the rate was higher in North America [5.2 (CI 2.9-9.4)/million tourists] than the European Union [1.9 (CI 1.4-2.5)/million tourists] p = 0.002. DISCUSSION: On average eight British children drown each year abroad. This is therefore a rare but tragic event. Most of these episodes happen in swimming pools and this needs to be compared to the one child that dies each year in municipal swimming pools in the United Kingdom where there is adequate lifeguarding. It may be that parents have a false sense of security for their children in pools abroad. We believe that there needs to be action from the European Union on this important event.

Drowning of babies in bath seats: do they provide false reassurance?

AIMS: To investigate the problem of children drowning in bath seats by examining case reports, by looking at the epidemiology of bath drowning in children under two years of age and by reviewing the literature. METHODS: We describe two babies: one who drowned and one nearly drowned in the bath whilst in a bath seat. We examined the RoSPA/RLSS UK database of cases of children under two years drowning in the bath for the years 1989-2003. Cases are ascertained through a press cutting system. We conducted an all language literature search of original articles, references, textbooks and conference abstracts 1951-October 2004 in 11 standard databases. RESULTS: The two cases illustrate how parents can have a false sense of security with bath seats. We found six cases of babies under two years drowning in the UK associated with bath seats in the time period 1989-2003. They were all boys: five of the six were under one year of age. This compared with 47 children of similar age drowning in the bath not associated with a bath seat. The literature is sparse with only four papers since 1966. DISCUSSION: A baby drowning after being placed in a bath seats is a rare but definite cause of death. Bath seats appear to give a false sense of security (even if not encouraged by the manufacturers). It is unclear whether putting a baby in a bath seat represents an increased risk of drowning compared with a baby without a seat. Without knowing the numbers of mothers that use bath seats it is difficult to come to firm conclusions on the risks to babies. New research is needed to clarify this issue. Whether in a seat or not it is clear that the main risk to babies in the bath is being left unsupervised.