Posted on

7 Ways to Prepare for an Emergency When You’re Teaching Your Kids to Swim

Don’t wait for the moment an emergency happens to plan for it. Accidents happen fast. Kids can drown in twenty seconds. Take these seven steps to prevent a swimming emergency from becoming a disaster.

  • Learn to swim yourself if you don’t already know how. If you’re keeping your kids safe by getting them swimming lessons, that’s great. Keep the whole family safe and give yourself the power to protect them by beefing up your own swimming skills.
  • Learn CPR.
  • Before you get into the water, make sure you know where to find a phone. Make sure that phone is working.
  • Before you get into the water, make sure you know where to find emergency phone numbers. 911 is a great start and should always be the first call in case of emergency.
  • Before you get into the water, make sure you know where to find the emergency shut-off for the pool pump. Pools now should have safety covers on the drain, but in the event that the suction traps a child at the drain—either because of strong suction or tangles hair or clothing—turning off the pool pump will stop the suction and make rescue easier.
  • Before you get into the water, evaluate your surroundings. Don’t swim if the pool isn’t safe. Don’t swim in open water if you’re not familiar with the environment and there’s no lifeguard on duty. Don’t swim in weather that might produce lightning.
  • Wear sunscreen and, if necessary, protective clothing. Reapply sunscreen frequently. Make sure that clothing you wear to protect yourself from the sun is designed to act as sun protection. Don’t wear cotton to protect yourself from the cold and wet. Instead, choose fabrics with better insulating properties.

Taking the time to prepare for emergencies will help keep you and your kids safe whether they’re just learning to swim or are solid swimmers.

Posted on

4 Safety Features Every Pool Has to Have

Most of the time, teaching your kids to swim will involve a pool. Whether you’re at a friend’s pool, a commercial pool, or your own pool, make sure the pool has these four safety features before you start a swimming lesson.

A Fence

Pools should be fenced, and the gate leading to the pool should always be closed.

Barriers and alarms aren’t foolproof safeguards. They’re designed to give you a little more time to look for a missing child before the child can accidentally—or with some effort—get into the pool. They’re not a substitute for supervision.

If you have a pool, install a four-sided pool fence that’s at least four feet high, with self-closing, self-latching, outward-opening gates and latches higher than kids can reach. Fences need to prevent kids from getting over, under or through them. They shouldn’t have anything a child could use as a foothold or handhold for climbing. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission provides detailed information about the specific structure of fences.

Consider getting an alarm that sounds when the gate to the pool area opens. Make sure the switch for the alarm is locked or out of reach of kids.

A power—not manually operated—safety cover that meets ASTM standards can be used as a layer of protection, but remember that a young child can drown in just inches of water. A pool cover that sinks slightly below the surface of the water or that has puddles on it can be a drowning hazard even if it prevents a child from getting into the pool.

A Working Phone

Make sure that there’s a working phone near the pool and that emergency numbers are posted.

A Drain Cover

Don’t use a pool or hot tub without a drain cover. If you have your own pool, install a Safety Vacuum Release System, which shuts off the drainage pump if the drain is blocked, preventing kids from becoming trapped at the bottom of the pool by the suction of the drain on their hair, clothing, or part of their bodies.

Glass-Free Surroundings

Don’t use glass of any kind around the pool. Be aware of things made of glass other than the obvious drinking glasses. Don’t use breakable tabletops, lamps, vases, or other furnishings around the pool.

Other Safety Measures

Do everything you can to make sure the pool you use to teach your kids to swim is safe. Other safety measures you can take include:

  • Remove steps and ladders from aboveground pools when the pool isn’t being used.
  • Don’t leave tempting toys in or near the water. Remove them from the pool area when you’re not there. Kids can fall into the pool while they’re trying to reach a toy.
  • Have your pool inspected regularly. Know and clearly mark the electrical cut-off switch for the pool pump.
  • Keep the water level of the pool high enough to make it easy for a small child to reach the edge of the pool and pull himself out.

If you have a pool, check with your local building and planning department about safety standards in your community, and always use common sense when you’re evaluating a pool and its safety.

Posted on

3 Things Water Safety Isn’t

Once you’re confident that your kids are water safe, you can breathe a sigh of relief. You’ve done your job. The swimming lessons are over. Teaching your kids to swim really paid off.

Don’t pour that margarita and lose yourself in a summer read just yet, though. When you understand what water safety means, it’s also important to have a good grasp of what it doesn’t mean.

3 Things Water Safety Doesn’t Mean

  • It doesn’t mean that you’ve removed all risk. Swimming, like the rest of life, will never be completely without risk. Water is a powerful element. Even water that doesn’t look overly rough can toss large adults around. Have fun but be careful.
  • It doesn’t mean being able to swim without adult supervision. No one, including an adult, should ever swim alone. One slip and a bump on the head on dry land is probably nothing more than a boo-boo. In the water, it could mean death.
  • It doesn’t mean being a competitive swimmer. Mastering the major strokes requires many hours of committed training. The number of hours to mastery being thrown around these days is 10,000. That’s five years of forty-hour work weeks. Not many swimmers have that much training under their trunks.

Mastery also requires a high level of motor development. Your child’s level of coordination in the water will look a lot like his coordination on land. Before you find yourself disappointed with his crawl, ask yourself how good he is at jumping rope.