Prevent the number one cause of accidental child death

Last month, Olympic skier Bode Miller and his wife, Morgan, lost their 19-month-old daughter, Emeline, after she drowned in a neighbor’s pool.

Now the couple is determined to raise awareness about child drowning, which is the leading cause of unintentional deaths for children 1 to 4 years old, according to a report by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Three hundred fifty-one children younger than 15 died in pool or spa-related drownings per year, between 2013 and 2015, according to a report by the organization.

The best way to prevent these accidents is to ensure that pools have four-sided fencing, including fencing between the pool and the door that leads to it, Philip Patrick Mularoni, the medical director of the Pediatric Sports Medicine Division at Johns Hopkins, tells The Post.

“When a child is in or near the pool, an adult should always be within reach of the child,” says Mularoni, who’s based in St. Petersburg, Fla. “And someone should be designated to watch the child or children, in case other adults get distracted.”

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