Children love swimming pools. They love to get wet. They love to splash. They love to play and frolic, to swim and dive, to hold their breath and to jump around in the water. A swimming pool is about the most useful “toy” you can provide for your children.
Swimming pools are fun for parents, too. The water is soothing. The air is fresh. And sometimes parents like to frolic around, too. And, of course, parents like to see their children enjoying themselves out in the fresh air, away from the TV screen, the video games screen, the music players and all those other sedentary basement things that kids are into these days. Even teenagers will take a break from their isolation and be part of the family again for a short time.
But water is dangerous, and every year 750 American children 14 years old and younger drown, many in backyard swimming pools, and another 4000 are severely enough injured that they need to be hospitalized. Pool safety is serious business.
The first and most obvious pool safety tip for kids is to make sure you have a solid pool fence installed, to keep young neighbourhood children – including your own – from wandering into the pool unattended. That is how most swimming pool drownings happen. You can build one yourself if you know what you’re doing, but you might want to call a pool fence contractor to make sure the fence is build strong and solid. Use gates that self-close and self-latch, with latches higher than your children’s reach, and make sure the fence is at least four feet high.
Here are a few mote top tips and tactics to keep your kids safe in the swimming pool this summer…
Never leave children alone. Drowning takes just a couple minutes, and it can – and often does – happen while parents step away from the pool “for just a moment”.
The American Academy of Paediatrics recommends a strategy called “touch supervision” for children under five years of age. This is a simple tactic of remaining close enough to your child that you can touch him at any moment – that you can reach out and grab him if something should happen.
Life saving equipment are NOT toys. Keep them close by the pool, where you can reach them in an emergency, and don’t let the kids (or your friends) play with them or move them. If someone starts drowning, you won’t have time to start searching for the equipment or even to run to the shed.
Make sure your pool deck has a non-slip surface. That will make it less likely that there will be a fall-related accident (Yes, they do happen frequently – kids love to run, even if you tell them not to).
Invest in swimming lessons for your children. They learn swimming skills from professionals who are expert in swimming techniques and in water safety. The skills they learn at swimming lessons will serve them for the rest of their lives. You never know when life-saving skills can come in handy.
Make sure any electrical appliance or device is protected by a ground fault circuit interrupter, in case they come in contact with the water. Better yet, keep radios and such far away from the water and far away from where they can fall in the water.
So you’ve installed your pool, and you are ready to build the deck. Call your local swimming pool fence contractor to build the fence and also the deck, so that it is also strong and sturdy. Finally, one last little tip…
Have fun.
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