The Truman Charities Podcast
Truman Charities is the only podcast that donates $250 to each of our guests' charity of choice.
Jamie Truman, connects with individuals who are making a significant impact in their communities. From New York Times bestselling authors to innovative farmers, we share the untold stories of those who are shaping the world around us. We feature trailblazers, influencers, and innovators who are driving positive change, such as the lawyer who fought Dupont for two decades to protect our water and the vital work of an organization dedicated to supporting women who have been trafficked within the United States.
Jamie Truman is the co-founder of Truman Charities, an entirely volunteer-run organization. Since its inception in 2010, Truman Charities has successfully raised over $2 million for a variety of charitable causes.
In addition to her work with Truman Charities, Jamie is also the author of the bestselling book "Vanishing Fathers: The Ripple Effect on Tomorrow's Generation." This book has generated over $80,000 for charities supporting at-risk youth, as 100% of the book's proceeds are donated to these vital organizations.
The Truman Charities Podcast
Drowning Is the Leading Cause of Death for Children Ages 1–4 | One Mother’s Journey to Prevent Drowning Through The Sylas Project Ep. 142
You cover outlets, block stairs, baby-proof the cabinets — but did you miss the biggest risk in your home? Drowning is the number one cause of accidental death for children ages 1–4, but most parents don’t realize how crucial water safety really is until it’s too late.
After losing her son, Andrea Montoya turned her grief into action, founding the Sylas Project to raise awareness, provide swim scholarships, and help families prevent the kind of tragedy she experienced.
In this episode, Andrea shares what she wishes she had known earlier about water safety, the common misconceptions that put young children at risk, and what parents can do to keep their kids safe. You’ll learn why survival swim is better than traditional swim lessons and the one product most parents trust but can actually put their kids in danger.
This is a must-have conversation as summer approaches, so tune in now to start preparing!
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Email: info@trumancharities.com
This episode was post produced by Podcast Boutique https://podcastboutique.com/
Welcome to the Truman Charities podcast. I am Jamie Truman, your host. With school about to let out, summer is officially here and many of you will be heading to the pool with your kids. If you're a parent or grandparent of a young child, this is an especially important episode for you. If not, please make sure to share this episode with someone that you know that has a small child at home. Did you know that has a small child at home? Did you know that drowning is the number one cause of accidental death in children aged one to four? It can happen in less than 30 seconds and it's often silent.
Speaker 1:In this episode, I had a conversation with Andrea Montoya, a mother who tragically lost her son, Silas, to an accidental drowning in 2020. Since then, Andrea has established the Silas Project. Through the Silas Project, Andrea is passionately working to raise awareness about water safety, offer survival swim scholarships to families who are in need and advocate for improved swimming pool legislation to protect all children. Andrea and I discuss common misunderstandings parents have about water safety, what infant survival swim lessons actually involved and how you can even begin these lessons with children that are under the age of one. We also address a very common item that parents often use at the pool, believing it's safe, but which can actually be quite dangerous. Please join me in welcoming Andrea to Truman Charities. Andrea, I am so happy and I appreciate you so much for coming on and talking with us today.
Speaker 2:Thank, you, Jamie. It's an honor to even be here to share.
Speaker 1:You are the founder of Silas Project and that is an honor of your son and your mission is to help protect children from accidental drownings. And before we get into you know some of the misconceptions and how you can protect your family from these accidental drownings. I want to talk a little bit. You know about your son, silas. Can you tell us a little bit about him and what he's?
Speaker 2:like Silas was 14 months old, that we had him on Earth for 14 beautiful months. He was such a happy boy. He just made us laugh Like he's our first baby, so you can imagine just all the love and happiness he brought to our lives. I spent actually every single day of his life with him so I feel like I was able to just experience the most beautiful moments with him, from even birth. One of those rare parents that really enjoyed, like the newborn period. I just loved snuggling babies, so with Sias I really really appreciated and enjoyed that moment. I enjoyed when he was, you know, going through his milestones and crawling, walking. He was such a curious little one and always making us laugh. He had the silliest laugh. But we had 14 beautiful months with him until everything happened where we lost Titus.
Speaker 1:You know, andrea, I want to say I'm so sorry for your loss and I wouldn't have asked you to come on this podcast unless I really did think that what you're doing and coming on here and your organization is going to save so many lives. So I really want to thank you for coming on. So I want to talk a little bit about. You did a really great article for the Bump and you talked about some of the misconceptions that parents have around pools and around accidental drowning. So can we talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 2:I think there's a lot of misconceptions about these accidents and even looking back at my own experience, I feel like I was extremely uneducated about the subject. But I would have been the parent, like if I actually knew the stats, if I knew the data, I would have been the parent to react faster. I had my entire house baby proofed, like I had the garage blocked off. I had, like you know, the whole kitchen baby proofed and I was missing the most dangerous place in my house. One of the biggest misconceptions is like every parent thinks you're going to be there, but adult supervision is just one layer and we can't just say, oh, I'm always going to be there and like that's it. We have to say, you know, let's start with an audit. I have a house, I have a home with a pool, or you might have a home with a lake or a pond or any sort of water feature. And that moment it's like how do I, how do I create a little bit more time for yourself to be able to catch something before it happens? And in that case it's like let's go in and start a sort of pull barrier to block that child from accessing those areas of danger before they're crawling before they're walking.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of parents, because babies and toddlers, they're always glued to us, we don't think that they're ever going to leave our side. But there's a reason why we also baby proof like, for example, outlet covers, like we block off these things because we think that they're going to be a hazard and that split second is when something happens, and the same thing that we think of hey, let's go and baby proof the rest of our house, like we need to be thinking of the biggest threat to their lives, which is water. When they get to the age of one, when they're mobile and walking and you know they can actually get from point A to point B and it doesn't take, how most people think, like so many minutes Like this thing, like these accidents happen in less than 20 seconds and it can completely change your life if without the proper preventative measures.
Speaker 1:I had no idea until I actually talked to CAST Liz from CAST, and she has an organization that's similar to yours, yeah, and she was saying that it's silent and under 30 seconds and it happens so quickly, and that a lot of parents aren't aware that between the ages of one and four, this is the leading cause of unintentional injury to children, and so I want you to talk a little bit about the differences between different swim programs that parents are thinking about putting their kids in, because there are so many, but there's one particular one that I think is more beneficial for parents to do with their children than others.
Speaker 2:For sure that's a great question. So I almost want to like back up. I feel like this part is almost like pretty relevant. So when Silas turned one, one of the things that I had heard from like family members is like, hey, you need to go and teach him how to swim. And when he turned one, I remember heading to it was actually a local YMCA, I believe where I inquired about swimming lessons for him and they told me that there was no swimming lessons until the age of three. Okay, and I was like, oh weird, I was told there was swimming lessons at this age.
Speaker 2:Anyways, fast forward three months and that's where everything happened. And it wasn't until then that I learned, hey, babies can actually learn how and the Survival Swim and Infant Aquatics. So in order to really find like quality lessons, you need to find a program that's going to teach your child to find air independently in weeks, not months, and usually what that involves is, before they're learning how to do strokes and sort of more advanced swimming techniques, like they're learning how to turn onto their backs, to roll and float on their own without the support of a parent, without the support of any sort of flotation device, and like a split second when something can happen like that flow is going to save their life, and that's why ensuring that a little one you know when they are, especially when they are mobile like they do, know these skills to be able to save their own life if they ever need to.
Speaker 1:You had a post that I really thought a lot of parents should see, and that was your son, theo now, and he pushed a chair up to, I think, your sliding door or something like that and just like, went up and unlatched the locks and you were saying there has to be multiple layers because children will mimic and look at what you're doing and they'll try to do the same thing. So just having like one lock on a door towards your pool is just not enough.
Speaker 2:It really isn't Like an alarm can run out of battery and a lock can be unlatched, and even a pool fence. If you have a very, very curious one, you need to think like 10 steps ahead. It's not just you know, I'm going to have one layer and that's it it's always thinking of. Is my child the kind that will go and try to imitate me? Most likely, yes, like most kids are curious. Most kids will wander and imitate parents and try to even like bring furniture to fences. But even like a pool fence, it's actually proven to reduce the risk of accidental drowning by 83%. So it's a great start to even, you know, begin there, make sure that there is a barrier and look 10 steps ahead and make sure that your kid does create those survival swimming skills to be able to protect their own lives. And like that little time of lapse of supervision, from the time that you're looking for them to getting them, they're not like face down, they're actually face up.
Speaker 1:And I want to talk a little bit about something that I see when I go to the pools all the time and I think the majority of parents think is very safe for their kids to be wearing at pools and I want you to talk about the misconceptions of the flotation devices that children wear.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good question. I feel like the flotation device conversation. It's really delicate because a lot of us, you know, we grew up in the time where floaties, those little arm wings, were a thing, like we would all go into the pools and we would flow and we're upright. But it's not until you hear from parents who experience a tragic loss for you to realize like, hey, actually these things aren't teaching our children to swim. These things are actually teaching our children that water is safe, that water is okay to jump in and that you should hold your position vertically.
Speaker 2:And something that's very contextually related too is like when you go into these survival swimming courses with your little one, you see how they teach your child in such a delicate manner how to turn onto their back. And when you introduce these flotation devices, what it does is the opposite it teaches them to almost forget what they have learned and adapt more incorrect vertical postures, and that allows them to train their muscle memory. You know to resort back to that drowning position, which is very dangerous. Any public pool you see a ton of kids in floaties all the time and parents really think like, yeah, this floatie is giving me the peace of mind, I'm hands-free, but really it could be causing more harm than good, and it's just something for parents to understand. A child should never think they can swim if they actually don't.
Speaker 1:Right, when I was speaking to some of the ISR instructors they were talking about how it really gives them a false sense of security when having the floaties on. So the ISR lessons tell me a little bit about them so people know exactly. Like when you're signing up, how does that process work?
Speaker 2:That's a good question. So I actually went through that whole process for the first time with my son, theodore. This was after Silas' accident, when Theodore was about to turn 10 months. He was like nine and a half turning 10 months. I signed him up.
Speaker 2:The first step is really you register online and then with all their information and then they actually do a medical evaluation of your child. It's basically to ensure that the child will have the safest possible lessons and let the instructor know if there's any sort of adaptations they need to do or anything that they need to consult with a pediatrician. So just make sure that you know the child is ready to go into lessons. They're 10-minute lessons that you have with your one-on-one instructor. You get to the class. You're pretty much going there for 10 minutes, I would say the first couple of weeks.
Speaker 2:For a parent, especially if you're not used to like swim lessons, it's hard when you don't know how serious these accidents can be Like, because nobody likes to hear little ones cry and when you think about these lessons, a child is learning how to swim and float and roll over and do all these new things for the first time. So of course they might cry, but it's so minimal compared to like their entire day. Like you're just crying in little bursts theater would. I think he cried for like two weeks, those 10 minute lessons, and after that two weeks I started seeing just big smiles.
Speaker 2:I started seeing his confidence just boost and seeing him feel empowered to go to his lessons, like he would high five his instructor Erica. He would wave by and we're talking about like a little guy, like in two weeks he had learned enough where he felt comfortable rolling onto his back and floating. But I would say the lessons they're very delicate. The instructor's really just like teaching them very gracefully. They always end on a happy note so they can feel encouraged, encouraged and yeah, I would say it's almost like as if family is teaching your child, but in a way that is obviously like they have the best practices to teach them and they do it in a way that allows them to learn it in very short amount of time. So within a few weeks, like you're seeing them in six weeks, they're pretty much graduating and being a baby that started not having any capability to roll on their backs and float to being able to sustain a float and even do it when they're wearing like a full set of clothes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did like that, the graduation. What they do have every parent do is have your child have pajamas on or a full outfit. I read back that when you had a post like back in March, that because of your organization you've been able to help over 100 families with scholarships. So tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:That's been really something that just makes me proud, and I mean really the donations come from everyone, right, everyone that wants to help. You know, families be able to afford these lessons Like, sometimes, swim lessons are not the most accessible thing. So what the Silas Project aims to do is minimize the cost for families. We give scholarships to low-income families that qualify and that allows our kids to go and complete a full set of lessons to be able to survive in water and, yeah, we hope to continue doing that for many more little ones.
Speaker 1:So what do you think that parents should know before the summer season starts? When it comes to pool safety and just being around water in general, this summer, that's a good question what should they know?
Speaker 2:I would say, if they haven't already started lessons, it's not too late, like now is the time to go and enroll and book your spot with an instructor. I would say the peace of mind. Please don't try to find peace of mind by resorting to flotation devices and just assuming that they're going to be okay. Like I think it's very important to ensure that they are enrolled in quality lessons, make sure that your pool is fenced, especially assuming that as the temperature warms up, most families are outside more often than the other seasons, and so it's important to also acknowledge like little ones are learning to be in water, and the faster that they can go from unskilled to skilled is extremely important.
Speaker 2:Most accidents actually happen during non-swim times. It's over 70% of accidents do so in that time, when a child is kind of getting dressed and is supposed to not be in water anymore, is when a lot of those accidents tend to happen. So never let your guard down when in water, I would say, during pool time, please remember to assign a water watcher, someone that you can trust, to watch over the child like every 15 minutes just active supervision, without the use of phones, and be able to pass that supervision to another responsible adult and then, after swim time again, if you are near water, just make sure that you have a close eye on the little one, especially since children are known to like. You know, as you're putting clothes on one sibling, the other one could run back and fall in. So just making sure that you're extremely vigilant and there's always an adult for every child. It has to be a conversation with the entire family on how you go about it because, again, these accidents are, they happen in just a matter of seconds.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you just posted about the water watching someone watching the water and I thought it was interesting because you had in your post you said when you think everyone's watching, no one's watching.
Speaker 2:I see that all the time and this is a more, I would say, close example to me. Like even my three-year-old Theodore, like he has, he knows how to swim and float and continue swimming. Like he knows the sequence, he's been through the lessons. But even then I'm like nowadays even just a hawk when I watch him, especially knowing what I know now. But one thing that I still notice is that everyone kind of overlooks that message of when everyone's there, nobody's actually watching.
Speaker 2:I still hear it. I still hear it often where families will say, yeah, we're all there. But then when I glance over at him and I'm continuing to watch him, I see how people get distracted, I see the nature of just being human. Someone talks to you, you turn your head and in that split second the child can kind of go to the side and start doing their own thing. So that's why having that concept of a water watcher, the person that is actually responsible for the little one's safety, is so important, because you're not just trusting everyone in the pool enjoying their time, like you actually have a designated person kind of overseeing everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so how do you see the Silas Project in the future? What are your goals?
Speaker 2:One of the things I want to focus on next is really expanding our reach. So I would say one thing I've been thinking of is ways to partner with like realtors and pediatricians and people that have a lot of exposure with kids and parents, where water safety can start being a louder part of the conversation from day one of home ownership or parenthood. I would love for the Silas Project to become a louder voice in drowning prevention, to be able to offer more families funding for survival, swim instruction. And at the heart of it all, I would just say hearing parents just coming to me and letting them know that, letting me know that hearing Silas's story, hearing the message, almost changed the way that they saw water safety before and that's why they implemented either, you know, swim lessons or pool safety fences. Like that means the world to me and what just keeps me going. So I would just say what I'd love to focus on is just expanding reach to be able to do that stuff so nobody ever has to live through what I did. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I do think that when you mentioned you know pediatricians, I think that's really something that they should know about, because I randomly heard about ISR lessons through a girlfriend that had a boat and so she had just known from like the boating world about those lessons. But before that, really the only lessons that you hear about are really like the YMCA lessons and, as you said, like they had told you to start at what three, three, yeah, is there anything that we haven't covered that you think that parents and grandparents should know?
Speaker 2:There's, I feel like, so much to talk about. I would say that my message is just please, don't wait. Two weeks before Silas's accident, I had reached out to a pool fence company, but they didn't reply on time. The COVID had just hit, the pandemic hit and everything got delayed, and in that moment is when everything happened. I would just say please don't wait. Like, if you're a grandparent, you can make such a huge difference in your home. Like, even if grandchildren are only visiting, for you know, the weekends, you can make your home as safe as possible for them. Please don't wait to keep your add barriers and even fund survival swim instruction if you don't have the funds to be able to enroll in lessons. Like there are nonprofits that can help with this. But most of all, like I would just say, don't wait to install barriers. It's the difference of time, and time is priceless, and how can people help you and help with the Silas project.
Speaker 2:I would say the biggest help is sharing our story and sharing. I think when people hear real world experiences, people act faster. I wish I could have seen any story before losing Silas. Losing him has also allowed me to share my story and allowed a lot of parents to learn from what I didn't know back then so they don't have to make the same mistake. And the more that we talk about it, as uncomfortable as it can be, because it's you know, nobody likes talking about tragic things, but I wish someone would have had a very awkward conversation with me about drowning prevention. I feel like it's so important, especially as parents like we need to be there for each other and, like you said, I wish my pediatrician also mentioned something it's so important to to be able to spread this, because nobody wants to ever lose their little one.
Speaker 1:Andrea, I'm so thankful that for your willingness to come on here. I can't imagine how difficult this is for you. Is there anything that you would want everyone to know about? Silas?
Speaker 2:I think Silas would be really proud of everyone who's doing everything to protect their kids. To be honest, silas sends me so many little messages randomly and it's already been like over five years since we lost him and it's still such a delicate thing to me Like I. I carry him everywhere I go. But I know deep down, like I know he's proud and I know he he wants us to keep pushing to be able to get these stats down, because they're just really heartbreaking stats that no parent should ever have to face.
Speaker 1:I'm so happy that you took the time to talk with us because, as I said earlier, I know that you are saving lives by this nonprofit you are, by the scholarship programs that you're doing and by coming on to this podcast and talking. You really are, because so many people are unaware of these stats. Like you said, I really appreciate you coming on, and I think it's essential to talk about this, especially around this time of year. So I want to thank you again for coming on, and is there anything else before I let you go? No, I think we covered a good bit. Thank you, jamie, for coming on, and is there anything else before I let you go?
Speaker 2:No, I think we covered a good bit. Thank you, Jamie, for having me it's an honor.
Speaker 1:Of course, and for everyone, I will have your organization's information and how you can donate and get involved in the Silas Project. So thank you, andrea, again for coming on and I thank everybody for tuning in. This was such an important episode, especially with summer just around the corner. If you would like to help Andrea and the Silas Project, please make sure to go onto our website where you can donate the silasprojectorg, or you can follow her on Instagram for different water safety tips at the Silas Project. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Truman Charities podcast. Until next time.
