Toddler Drowning Prevention: Teaching Parents About Child CPR in Conjunction With Their Child’s In-Water Lessons

The purpose of the study was to develop a program that addressed parental misconceptions of child CPR. Parents (n = 109) of toddlers enrolled in swim school lessons were randomly assigned to control, pool-based instruction and home-based groups. Initially, one third (30%) of parents were confident of their ability to perform child CPR and only one fifth (22%) correctly reported the recommended compression-to-rescue breath ratio of 30:2 for child CPR. Postintervention, confidence and knowledge of CPR protocols improved significantly for both instruction groups compared with the control group. Correct compression-to-breath ratios signifi- cantly improved for the pool-based group (86%) and home-based group (87%) compared with the control group (33%). Child CPR instruction at swim schools provided a valuable opportunity to reduce parental anxiety about performing child CPR and improved knowledge of child CPR. Further research is required to determine how other toddler parents might similarly benefit from such a program.