5 Pool Safety Tips to Keep Your Family Safe.

There is no better way to relax and avoid the summer heat than to spend the day playing in a swimming pool. Yet, as fun as a pool may be there are serious inherent dangers. Some 90 percent of drownings occur in fresh water and more than half of these occur in home swimming pools. Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death for school-age children and the number one cause for preschoolers. Approximately 350 drownings each year involve residential swimming pools among children ages 4 and under. More than half of these drownings occur in the child’s home pool and one-third occur at the homes of friends, neighbors or relatives. Therefore, it is important to be conscious of pool safety precautions. Listed below are a few safety tips to keep in mind in order to help insure your swimming excursions are a safe and memorable experience and not a tragic one.

1) It’s much safer to always swim with another person. Because a person can drown quickly, swimming alone should be avoided. If another person is present, it is much more likely that a person who is drowning will get help before it is too late. Children should never be left alone while swimming. Most parents intend on watching their children but the phone rings or the baby wakes up, etc., and they become distracted. Remember this. Most accidents happen when a child is left alone. Also, children are much more playful and energetic which can lead to many more accidents.

2) Be sure your children learn to swim as early as possible. Most drowning accidents involve children who did not know how to swim. Learning to swim is a fun experience for children and will give you the peace of mind that if one of your children does fall into a pool they will have a much better chance of survival. It is important to realize that even if your pool is child protected, that might not be the case at another home with a pool where your children spend time. Also, parents need to be sure they can swim as well. It does little good if the person watching the children is unable to enter the water to rescue a child in trouble.

3) Children should wear life jackets. These give a extra measure of safety for children. Life jackets should be preferred because they help keep the whole upper body including the head above water. Arm flotation devices are another option, however, children can more easily pull them off and they are not as effective in case a child is knocked unconscious.

4) Never dive in the shallow end of the pool or in a body of water where you cannot see how deep the water is or what obstacles lie hidden beneath the surface of the water. Many people have suffered broken necks, been knocked unconscious, and have drowned because their heads hit the pool bottom or something else hidden from sight in a cloudy body of water.

5) Be sure your back yard pool is surrounded by an adequate fence and the gate automatically shuts. Also, it should go without saying that the gate should be locked at all times when there is no adult supervision. In places where home swimming pools are a common part of home life, a locked gate not only protects your children but also other children in the neighborhood who might wander into your back yard. Jacuzzi pools are often overlooked in regards to requiring the same safety standards as a pool. Jacuzzi covers which can be locked in place are available and should be part of the safety standards for your back yard. If your children are denied access to the pool or a jacuzzi then obviously they will not be another swimming accident statistic.