What is kids alive?
Drowning is the greatest cause of accidental death in the under five age group in Australia. Last year, over 40 Australian children under the age of five died in drowning accidents, with a further 92 being admitted to hospital as the result of an immersion incident, often resulting in brain damage. In an effort to stop these preventable deaths, Laurie Lawrence developed the Kids Alive – Do The Five! water safety program in 1988 after a successful career as an Olympic swim coach and motivator.
Since its creation, Laurie and the Kids Alive program have helped reduce toddler deaths significantly in Queensland, and now he is taking the program to a national audience with the goal of further reducing preschooler water incidents all over the nation.
The majority of incidents can be prevented if children are taught basic, essential swimming skills, so the Kids Alive program is all about educating the public about the ways they can teach their own children to be safe around water.
“Australians love the outdoors, and they love to live and play near water so it’s every parent’s responsibility to make sure that their child is safe and confident in the water”, says Laurie.
The only way to have a fatality free summer is for all Australians to practice and spread the Kids Alive message:
Huggies and Kids Alive
Huggies is proud to support the Kids Alive program. In fact, in 2005 it was Huggies support that allowed Laurie Lawrence to take his Kids Alive message around Australia on a national tour that included metropolitan and regional areas.
Huggies support also allowed Laurie to launch a new Kids Alive DVD focused on Teaching Your Baby to Swim. This latest addition to Laurie’s instructional water skills series focuses on water conditioning for newborn babies 0-4 months old – a revolutionary and unique approach to water safety designed by Laurie himself and sponsored by Huggies.
If you are a Huggies Club member you can purchase a copy of Laurie’s DVD at the specially discounted price of $17.96.
For more information see Learn to swim or Parenting .
Last Published* May, 2024
*Please note that the published date may not be the same as the date that the content was created and that information above may have changed since.
