Water Safety from the Perspective of an ER Doctor| Dr. Michael Odinet

ParentingU

Water is fun! Let’s keep it that way with some tips from Dr. Michael Odinet, Emergency Room physician at Our Lady of Lourdes. Dr. Odinet isn’t here to rain on our parade—he’s a water fan himself, having a family pool and a water-side camp. Dr. Odinet offers lots of practical tips for families to stay water safe: from where an adult should be when it’s pool time to how to talk to friends to assess everyone’s water skills. Life jackets, water watchers, and water safety conversations are non-negotiables for Dr. Odinet and you’ll learn how to incorporate all of these for your family in this episode of ParentingU.

Mentioned on the show:

- Dr. Odinet’s top tip is when you suspect someone is in trouble in the water is to immediately move towards the person and get them out; laying them on their side once out.

- A call to 911 is critical: minutes count and can make the difference. If you suspect drowning, call 911.

- Remember: real-life drowning does not look like the movies or TV. A drowning person might be quiet and in distress. Dr. Odinet said most people say they only looked away for a moment—use this common thread to change your water situational awareness.

- Be a Water Watcher! Pledge to be the eyes on the water, whenever anyone is playing poolside. Get your own Water Watcher card here from Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health: https://ololchildrens.org/blogs/water-watchers

- The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has a website, Pool Safely with lots of resources for parents to use to help keep kids water safe. Visit: https://www.poolsafely.gov/

- Stay tuned to ParentingU: we have two more episodes on water safety, including hearing from Heather, the mom of Mazie and the founder of Mazie’s Mission plus Shelly, CEO of Crawfish Aquatics and Crawfish Swim School.

We hope you find this Bonus episode of ParentingU informative and timely. You can hear all episodes of ParentingU on our website or on your favorite podcast app including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Podcasts.

Learn more about Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health at our website: https://ololchildrens.org/ Find Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health on Facebook and Instagram.