Pediatricians Warn Against Swim Lessons for Toddlers
SALVATORE: With the first anniversary of the Columbine shootings fast approaching, the Clinton administration is stepping up its pressure on Congress to pass landmark gun legislation. But the nation's pediatricians aren't waiting. This week, they renewed their call for an all-out ban on handguns and semiautomatic weapons and laid out a new plan to end what they call an epidemic of firearm deaths and injuries among children. CNN medical correspondent Eileen O'Connor introduces us to one doctor who speaks from experience.</s>EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dr. Joseph Wright says there are some children a pediatrician never forgets.</s>DR. JOSEPH WRIGHT, CHILDREN'S NATIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: I took care of a young girl who was unintentionally shot by her older brother. They were playing with a loaded and unlocked weapon at home.</s>O'CONNOR: Dr. Wright says three-quarters of the injuries he sees at Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C., are from handguns. Firearm-related deaths are the leading cause of death in the district, but it's the individual tragedies that haunt him.</s>WRIGHT: I also remember caring for a young child who got ahold of one of her parents' weapons from a bureau top and fired the weapon, playing with it, into her mouth, and killing herself.</s>O'CONNOR: The little girl was 3, and just one of the reasons he agrees with the American Academy of Pediatrics, the only way to prevent more than 4,000 children and teens under 20 from dying each year is by banning handguns. In the absence of such legislation, the AAP is also urging guns be subject to safety and design regulations like other consumer products, doctors educate their patients and families as to the importance of safe storage of guns and their potential for harm, and the romance with guns in the popular media be studied and reduced. The National Rifle Association says education on gun safety, not a ban, is what is needed. Dr. Wright believes the availability of guns is the problem.</s>WRIGHT: If there had been any epidemic, any other epidemic in which we were losing 12 children a day, 12 children a day are lost to firearms in this country, there would be a public outcry.</s>O'CONNOR (on camera): Some doctors disagree, saying the AAP call for a ban on handguns is ethically wrong. It's political, not medical, policy. Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership say the number of accidents and homicides related to firearms has actually been going down. And while they too advocate educating families about gun safety, they say the problem lies with illegal guns in the wrong hands. Eileen O'Connor, CNN, Washington.</s>SALVATORE: Both doctors and parents are always looking for ways to protect children from the everyday dangers of life. And with summer around the corner, millions of parents are hauling their little ones off to swimming lessons, thinking it could someday save their life. While they may be right, doctors also warn those lessons can give parents a false sense of security. More from our parenting correspondent, Pat Etheridge.</s>PAT ETHERIDGE, CNN PARENTING CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Babies and toddlers seem to take to the water like fish to the sea. But the American Academy of Pediatrics says it's not as simple as that.</s>DR. BARB SMITH, PEDIATRICIAN: I think our concern at the academy is that if you're engaged in lessons in which someone's claiming that they're going to teach your baby to swim and make them safer, that we don't know that that's in fact true.</s>ETHERIDGE: Worried that the popularity of babies' splash classes may give parents a false sense of security, the academy has issued new warnings. Doctors say children simply may not have the motor skills or the judgment necessary to learn to swim until at least age 4. Younger children can learn to dog paddle, float on their backs, and glide for short distances but cannot be expected to perform consistently.</s>SMITH: It's really not fair to the baby to expect them to be able to perform consistently. And if we have families who then aren't as vigilant about good supervision, that's a recipe for tragedy.</s>ETHERIDGE: Whenever infants and toddlers are in or around water, an adult should literally stay within an arm's length. All aquatic programs should fully explain the risks of the water, and the importance of adult supervision. Drowning is a leading cause of death among infants and toddlers.</s>UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Last year I hauled Thomas off the bottom of the pool, and it scared us both.</s>ETHERIDGE: Other experts worry the new guidelines may steer parents away from giving youngsters swimming lessons altogether. They insist early exposure to the water is important.</s>KAREN LEONARD, SWIM AMERICA: It should be the first sport that children are involved in. They should learn to swim before they play baseball, before they do any other sport that you can think of. Swimming is the only sport that can save your life.</s>ETHERIDGE: There's nothing wrong with introducing a young child to the pleasures of the pool.</s>UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: And it's fun, you know. Summertime's coming, and we want to enjoy the pool.</s>ETHERIDGE: That's as long as an adult shares the fun, just an arm's length away. Pat Etheridge, CNN, YOUR HEALTH.</s>SALVATORE: Coming up on YOUR HEALTH, a look at this week's health headlines. Plus, there a must-have for every parent, inventions aimed at getting your kids to love eating their vegetables.