Swimming during the summer months is what every child enjoys. Even the parents also partake in this activity with their little ones. It is a wonderful way to have fun and cool down in summer. However, it’s very much possible that there might be some safety hazards to this. These may include not only the risk of drowning but also the lifelong fear of water that could develop in the child. To avoid this, there are some simple rules that you should follow. These rules are established in layers. So if one layer tends to fail for some reason the next will jump in its place. By applying and remembering these four simple steps, you can ensure your child’s safety. After all having fun during summer is important.
1. Aware and Alert
Being alert can go a long way in avoiding mishaps. Your kids should not be out of your sight. They should be within an arm’s reach of any adults. Rules that only allow swimming with adults are important to enforce. All children, whether they are swimmer or non-swimmers, under the age of 6 should be supervised. They should be looked after no matter what age or ability they have. Try not to leave the children who can swim unattended either.
2. Security first
Enforce rules like no climbing and diving. Make sure that that is no furniture around. The pool shouldn’t have any lawn shakes or table or trees close to them. It will help the children avoid temptations of diving or jumping. Pool fences should be checked.
Any potential hazards or climbing options should be removed from the pools surrounding.
3. Learn swimming or safety measures yourself
Probably the best thing you can do is learn swimming yourself and know some safety methods. Learn how to save a drowning child even if it’s in theory. Teach your children to water safety skills and put them in proper classes to learn. Swimming and safety skills can get better with practice. So let them learn and understand being in the water.
4. Plans for emergency
Always be prepared in case of an emergency. Make sure to implement a plan that can work in such situations. Go through the safety measures and plans with your children too. Before letting them go off to swim, you can remind them what to do in case of an emergency. Hang a CPR chart too somewhere at the poolside.
It doesn’t matter how good of a swimmer your child was last summer. During the winter months, they’ve had a break, and their skills are not refined. So make sure that irrespective of ability your child is not left unsupervised. However, because by following the above mentioned four steps, you can ensure more safety. In case the child is left unsupervised there are always poolside gates and fences that they can hold on to. If that fails, you’re right there to save them. This four-step regulation can be the difference between life and death. There have been many cases reported of poolside drowning. But by implementing these simple rules, you can avoid all of that.
