Water Safety in the Summertime

The summer months are an ideal time to enjoy water play with children. The air temperature is usually warm to hot as the sun shines for more than ten hours on average, bringing everything around us to life. These fair-weather days lend themselves to the desire to enjoy water activities with children near a pool or a lake or even near the ocean. The challenge of course is safety!

As noted by the World Health Organization, drowning prevention has been recognized globally with its own unique day, in hopes that greater attention will be paid to stop this unnecessary and tragic accident from reoccurring year after year. Statistics have revealed that 87% of drownings for children under the age of 5 have occurred in family pools and in less than 60 seconds. Families are often left shocked and heartbroken in realizing how quickly their child could drown as simple distractions have seemingly contributed to this data.

Drowning prevention is the key! Learning to swim is similar to learning how to ride a bicycle as this is a life-long skill once it is acquired.

While in the process of learning to swim, families must consider the use of life jackets for their children to prevent drowning. Life jackets are amazing devices which keep the wearer above the water level and add to their confidence as they are learning to swim.

Finally, the colour of a child’s swimsuit also makes a difference! Surprisingly, recent studies have shown that neon colours like pink, orange, green and yellow swimsuits are the best, and can help rescuers find the swimmer quickly in the water be it a pool, lake, or ocean. Swimsuits which are either white or light blue seemingly disappear once they are below the water surface, making it close to impossible for rescuers to locate the drowning victim.

With many water parks, pools and swimming locations opening up for the summer months, it is more important than ever to put distractions away and supervise children in the water at all times. Swim safely!