In the Good Old Summertime: Keeping Your Child Safe in (and Around) the Pool

I would like to say that the news story out of Georgia this weekend, where to five year old girls drowned in a pool as their caregiver was talking on the phone, is out of the ordinary but it is much more common place than we would like to think. No matter where the pool is located there are some simple (and a few not so simple) steps that you can take to keep your children safe.

It is important to remember that although most drowning occur in residential swimming pools, a child can drown in as little as an inch of water.  This may include a toilets, wading or inflatable baby pools, bath tubs, ice chests, fountains, ponds or buckets for younger children because once they fall over into them they do not have the upper body strength to pull themselves out.  Most drowning involving infants under the age of one occur in the bathtub.   Older children may not be at risk of drowning in these situations, but open water such as rivers, lakes and oceans do pose a drowning threat for them as well.  Therefore, it is important to be observant of what your child is doing when they are around water even if they are not swimming.

The American Academy of Pediatrics advises parents to take the following preventive steps to protect their children from drowning:

• Never leave your child unsupervised near water at or in the home, or around any body of water, including a swimming pool.
• Learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and infant and child first-aid.
• Do not rely on personal flotation devices (PFDs) or swimming lessons to protect your child.  Note that water wings, rafts and toys were not made to prevent drowning.
• Install childproof fencing around swimming pools.  Consider locking all doors that access pool.  Make sure that those locks are out of your children’s reach.  Small hands can be quite resourceful when they are on a mission.
• Make sure you have rescue equipment or an approved floatation device, a telephone, and emergency phone numbers near the swimming pool at all times.
• Insist that your child wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device on boats at all times.  The best way to get older children to wear them is to wear them yourself.  Think safety first, fashion second.
• Do not allow children to dive in waters less than 9 feet deep.  Many children sustain permanent neck injuries diving into water that is too shallow.  Check the depth of the lake or pool prior to allowing diving.
• Take any pool cover completely off before allowing your child to swim.  This is one that I have personally been guilty of.
•  Young children should not use hot tubs as they can easily get overheated.