Jennifer McNulty, M.D. Specialty: Pediatric Emergency Medicine, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Edward Hospital shared in EEHealth’s Healthy Driven Blog that in summer a lot of kids will spend time at the pool. While your kids enjoy these carefree summer days, water safety needs to be top of mind.Nearly 1,000 kids die each year by drowning. It is the number two cause of accidental death in children ages 15 and under. What’s worse, in 10 percent of drownings, adults are nearby and will actually watch it happen without realizing it.

This is because drowning does not look like drowning. The waving, splashing, and yelling you see on TV are rarely seen in real life. In fact, drowning is almost always deceptively quiet. It can happen quickly, even in the presence of lifeguards.

Frank Pia, Ph.D. coined the term the “instinctive drowning response,” to describe how an individual automatically behaves when drowning or close to drowning.

The drowning person may look like they are casually treading water and looking up at you. In reality, their mouth is alternately sinking above and below the water’s surface, but not long enough to breathe or call out for help. This struggle will only last from 20 to 60 seconds before the person goes under the water.

Since drowning does not look like you expect it to, how do you know if it’s happening?

One way to tell if someone is drowning is to ask them “are you okay?” If they can’t answer or if they return a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them.

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