05/04/2023
This product killed my child.
You read that right.
My child died from drowning-the very thing this device that I so carefully put on him and used faithfully with him- claims it prevents.
I was fooled by slick marketers who I believe knew that they could convince anxious momma hearts to buy their product with five simple words: “Learn-To-Swim-Life-Jacket”.
Then I think they sweetened the deal by adding in BIG, BOLD letters that it is also “US Coast Guard approved!”, conveniently and artfully omitting the next words, “...for use on a boat, in calm water and with a parent within arm’s reach at all times”....which is how these devices are ACTUALLY rated by the Coast Guard.
What they did NOT seem to decide was important enough to put on the packaging was that this product positions children in a vertical position in the water. They didn’t disclose that using this device frequently with a young child will teach them muscle memory for that vertical position, so that when they go to the water, whether they have it on or not, they will automatically get into that position, making drowning easier and faster.
What wasn’t in beautifully bright bubble letters was that this vertical position is the DROWNING position.
They never mentioned that after using this device frequently during swim time, my child’s barely developing brain might not be able to make the connection that the device was what was keeping him up and not his own ability. They didn’t tell me that he might then think he could float and swim on his own, whether he had the device on or not.
The makers of this device and others like it don’t tell you that all of this gives a young child a false sense of safety and an unhealthy boldness around water. They won’t tell you that after using this device and conditioning your children with it, they are MUCH more likely to go back to the water without it and without you, and that this is how SO MANY children have drowned and died.
They turned away from the survey results presented to them and the hundreds of grief ridden parent testimonies about how this device and others like it killed their children through this teaching and linking of bad body positioning with the overconfidence that probably led all of them to go to the water without their devices, drown and die.
They don’t seem to like the link that their device might have to drowning deaths. They paint happy little boats and flaunt the US Coast Guard stamp of approval proudly and prominently on the packaging. They don’t tell you that there is no proof whatsoever to their claims.
They do it, and advertise for it to be used in pools, even though so many of us have told them that the USCG doesn’t even evaluate these devices for use in pool settings, much less approve of their use there. For icing on that cake, they use the words “Swim Aid” or “learn to swim life jacket” when in reality, no device can teach your child to swim.
No device can teach your child to swim, because they were never meant to perform that function. They were always meant ONLY to hold your child up so that they can breathe, if they were ever to fall off of a boat into open water, or be swept out into the ocean by a current. They were meant to be worn on boats or beaches, not in pools.
But these marketers don’t tell you any of that. It appears that it hurts their bottom line to do that. It seems as though it thins out their wallets too much to put safety ahead of sales.
Safety messages like, “Should not be used recreationally or as a swim aid” or “Not a substitute for high quality swim lessons” does not appear to bring the desired ding of the cash registers to their ears.
So, let’s tell them what we, the consumers, want by NOT buying these deceptive devices.
Let’s show them what we want by putting our kids in survival swim lessons instead of these devices, so that they can learn to use their own bodies to get up and get their air. Let’s show them by letting our kids feel what their own bodies can and can’t do in the water, with us right there to keep them safe while they learn, so they can develop a healthy respect for it. Let’s stop buying these fill-in devices that end up being the first link in the chain to losing our children to drowning-the number one killer of our kids under 5.
Let’s stop depending on devices for our children’s safety in pools and let’s start training the only device they can take with them wherever they go–their own bodies- to help them float and get air. After all, 70% of their drownings happen during non-swimming times, when they wouldn’t have the device with them to help them anyway.
Let’s save device use for open water, where they were made to be used and where they belong. Let’s choose better devices for that open water, like actual life jackets that are better rated to be used there.
Let’s show marketers that our children mean more than their bottom line.
I can’t bring my baby back. I can’t change my own pain. But I can speak up and hopefully stop someone else from losing their baby the way I did mine.
Please hear me…hear the hundreds of other broken moms this has happened to and protect your babies.
Don’t buy or use these devices.
If you have them, destroy them-don’t donate or give them to someone else. Don’t keep them in circulation in any way.
Honor the beautiful children that we loved and lost this way and protect the lives of your precious babies.
