With the weather warming up, many families are gearing up for visits to swimming pools, lakes, rivers, water parks and more, making water safety an extremely important topic. In this episode of The Lab, Daddy Clay talks with Alissa Magrum, Executive Director of Colin's Hope, an organization dedicated to creating and supporting programs that aid in preventing children from drowning. She gives us the statistics on drowning, and also warns about dangers in other areas where water is found including bathtubs, toilets, and kiddie pools. Learn some swim safety rules and why it's important to pay attention to kids when they're near water. For more information, parents can visit colinshope.org. DadLabs Ep. 760 is brought to you by BabyBjorn. Additional footage provided by Colin's Hope and Rob Cunningham.

Alissa Mangrum: Water should be fun. It should be something that we enjoy, but it really needs to be respected. And we need to be safe in and around it, then it can be fun. If you don't pay attention to the dangers that water does have to offer, then it can be tragic.
Daddy Clay: In some parts of the country, the weather is warming up. Families are headed out to the pool and to the lake so it's time to talk once again about water safety. Today's episode's brought to you by BabyBjorn. You know, that Travel Crib Light is so easy to move around with, you can take it to the beach, the pool. BabyBjorn. So to get more information and some tips on practicing excellent water safety, we talked to Alissa Magrum of Colin's Hope.
Alissa: In Texas alone, drowning is the leading cause of unintentional injury related deaths so really preventable death, for kids ages 1 to 4. And it's the second leading cause for kids 1 to 14. Under 4 is the biggest age group. And we're not talking just pools. We're talking pools, and lakes, but also bathtubs and toilets and kiddie pools. You can drown in this much water. And so, thinking about it who would have thought that a toilet or a bathtub. You look at the data and you look at the number of drownings and that there are numerous drownings in bathtubs. Water needs to be respected. And parents need to understand you can't leave your kid unattended even for 3 seconds in the bathtub to go answer the phone or in a pool by themselves or near water even for seconds because something can happen. And I used to think drowning looked like this, "Ahh!". Screaming for help, waving of the arms, and sometimes it can look like that but a lot of times it can be a silent thing where a kid slips under the water or a person slips under the water and without yelling, without screaming, and in a matter of seconds. So, if you're constantly visually watching a child, hopefully it won't get to that point where you have to pull them out and do CPR. Which is another message that we talk to parents about is learn CPR, know it, refresh your skills, keep your certifications up to date. It's not just wearing life jackets. It's not just those things individually. It's everything together makes us not have to get to the part where we're pulling a kid out of the water. My daughter went to preschool with Colin and when Colin drowned, it became wow, this is something that I didn't even think about drowning as an issue that would affect me. And it really can affect you and will probably affect your or someone you know. And the message is, our key message is nobody is drown-proof. I don't care if it's me. I can go swim four miles, but I don't swim alone. Well, they can go to our website, which is colinshope.org. And we are re-adding some more resources and building it, really want it to be a rich site where people can not only find out about the realities of drowning and some drowning facts about, what the statistics are, thing like that. But really, simple things they can do to keep their kids and their families safe so they can have fun in the water. Another website is poolsafely.gov, which is a campaign by the federal government and they offer a lot of water safety tips as well and we're gonna have a big resource section with some links to other web sites and things like that. But really it's simple things that you can do. It's not that complicated. And it's really about our mission is raising awareness just about water safety and how to be safe and drowning prevention because drowning is preventable. These are out biggest messages. Drowning is preventable. Nobody is drown-proof. And it's simple things that you can do that can avoid drownings from happening and even let's not get to the CPR part although we encourage it, let's not get there. Let's prevent it from the start because it is preventable.
Daddy Clay: Another issue to bear in mind when it comes to water safety - foreclosed homes. The downturn in the economy has definitely created a hazard for kids all across this country. Foreclosed homes that have pools that are not being maintained. Fences break down. Kids can get access to these pools. And they are extremely dangerous. If there are foreclosed homes in your neighborhood, make sure to warn your kids to stay away from them and do yourself a favor and check and make sure that the fences are in good shape. If they're not, report it to the bank that owns the home. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time here in The Lab.