NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Doctors and others are sounding an alarm: More U.S. children have been drowning in recent years.
鈥淲hen drowning occurs, seconds matter,鈥� said Dr. Rohit Shenoi, the lead author of a recent American Academy of Pediatrics warning. 鈥淨uick rescue and resuscitation can mean the difference between life, death and lifelong disability.鈥�
About 4,000 to 5,000 Americans drown each year. Most are adults who die in natural bodies of water, such as lakes, ponds or oceans.
But statistically speaking, is a much larger danger to children. It鈥檚 the No. 1 cause of death for kids ages 1 to 4, and one of the top killers of children ages 5 to 14. The drowning rate is higher for white kids in the younger group, but much higher for Black, American Indian and Alaska Native children in the older group.
Drownings of very young children sometimes occur in bathtubs. But most, like Stewie Leonard’s, occur in swimming pools.
A family tragedy leads to a foundation for water safety
The Stew Leonard鈥檚 grocery chain offers a Disney-like shopping experience, featuring food-promoting animatronic characters like a dancing banana, a mooing cow and singing avocados. But several of its stores also have an animatronic creature that seems out of place: a life-jacketed duck named Stewie who sings about how not to drown.
The duck is named for the son of Stew Leonard, the grocery chain鈥檚 chief executive. The boy was 21 months old when he drowned during a family vacation on the island of St. Martin in 1989.
More than a dozen adults and kids had gathered at a birthday party for Stewie’s older sister, who was turning 3. Stew Leonard was outside hanging balloons and his wife was inside baking a cake.
鈥淚 saw Stewie outside and I assumed that he (Leonard) was watching him,鈥� said his wife, Kim, noting that other relatives also were in the area of the pool.
鈥淲e never communicated with each other; 鈥榊ou鈥檝e got him?鈥欌�� said Kim Leonard, now 65. 鈥淲hen everyone鈥檚 watching, nobody鈥檚 watching.鈥�
鈥淭here were a couple of balloons floating in the water,鈥� Leonard, 71, recalled. 鈥淎nd you know after a few minutes, sort of everybody was like, 鈥榃here鈥檚 Stewie?鈥� Unfortunately I was the one who found him. He was face down in the pool.鈥�
His death led the couple to that pays for children鈥檚 swimming lessons and promotes drowning prevention.
Why are more kids drowning?
Unintentional child drowning deaths in the U.S. fell from around 2,000 a year in the 1980s to below 1,000 a year by the early 2000s, thanks in part to public awareness campaigns, expanded access to swimming lessons, and adoption of pool fencing laws. Between 2000 and 2019, health officials saw .
But then the trend reversed, with the number of child drowning deaths rising from 756 in 2019 to 865 in 2024, the most recent year for which complete data is available. The bulk of them were children younger than 5. The child drowning death rate also increased slightly, from 1.1 to 1.2 per 100,000 children.
What happened?
The interrupted swimming lessons and lifeguard training programs, and contributed to a national lifeguard shortage. Meanwhile, some data suggests an increase in swimming pool construction and increases in unsupervised swimming, said Tessa Clemens, the CDC Foundation鈥檚 senior director for drowning prevention initiatives.
Kym Roberts studies drownings in Australia 鈥� where child drownings have been either level or decreasing in recent years. She said 鈥渄rowning in young children is often associated with falls into water and lapses in direct supervision.鈥�
Some possible good news: Preliminary U.S. data for last year suggests child drownings declined. But it’s not clear whether that’s the start of a trend, and the deaths still remain higher compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic, Clemens said.
Pediatricians push for standards and regulations
Inventors have recognized a need for child water safety measures, and recent years have seen the emergence of immersion alarms that sound if the wristband a child is wearing goes underwater. But manufacturers of such devices note they can serve as an extra warning system, but should not be considered a primary way to keep children safe.
The federal government’s top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, laid off Clemens and the rest of the staff of its drowning prevention program last year. But new guidance and drowning prevention support continues to come out of other organizations, including the CDC Foundation and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
A CDC Foundation program has paid for basic swimming and water safety skills training for over 35,000 students since 2024. The program operates in 11 states with higher drowning rates: Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.
Ways to prevent drowning
The AAP says research shows that policies can make a difference, including lifeguard standards, life jacket regulations and requirements that swimming pools be completely surrounded by fences with self-closing, self-latching gates.
Stew Leonard emphasizes two other approaches 鈥� swimming lessons for young kids and complete focus by caregivers when young children are around water.
鈥淚 mean, I love ballet. I love karate. I love tennis lessons. You know, all the activities that kids can do,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut the only thing you can do to save their life is put them in swimming lessons.鈥�
His foundation has funded over 250,000 swimming lessons for children and opened two swimming schools 鈥� one of them across the street from his company’s headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut.
Also, 鈥渟hut your cellphones off when you’re around the pool, watching the kids. Don’t sit there reading a book. Don’t sit there talking to your friends, neglecting your child that’s near the water,鈥� he said.
鈥淭his happens in the blink of an eye.鈥�
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