water safety

Water Safety

Water has always presented a danger to children. Drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional death in children 1 to 14. Every year in the United States, thousands of children drown, sometimes in nothing more than a bucket of water. Many others drown swimming in lakes, pools, or streams. A recent study suggested as many as 9 out of 10 drowning related deaths occurred while a child was being supervised. Children love the water, and trying to keep them away from it is pointless. But we can teach them how to be safe.

·	Encourage the use of life jackets when doing any water sports, even with good swimmers.

·	Keep an eye on the little ones. Children 4 and under account for 80 percent of home drownings, and have a death rate more than 3 times that of all other age groups.

·	Nearly all accidental drownings in young children can be contributed to a lack of parental supervision.

·	Young children can drown in as little as 1 inch of water.

·	Take proper precautions if you have a home pool. Keep children away from it. More than half of all drownings with children ages 1 to 4 are pool related. Installation of pool or hot tub fencing could prevent as much as 90 percent of pool related drownings.

·	Look for potentially hazardous bodies of water wherever you go, whether it be the park, a friend’s house, etc.

·	Learn infant and child CPR.

·	Enroll your child in swimming lessons at age 4. Just keep in mind, these lessons don’t make your child “drown proof”.

·	Teach children to never play around flooded rivers or creeks. Floodwaters can be extremely dangerous.

·	Never chase a toy into a river or stream. Call an adult to help get it for you.

·	Never continue to swim if you start to get dizzy, tired, or weak. Get out of the water as soon as you can and rest.

·	Teach children to always be cautious when swimming. Most older kids drown when they overestimate their swimming ability, or underestimate the risk of the waters.

·	Never go out in a lake farther than you feel comfortable with. Remember you have to be able to swim the entire way back also.

·	Never jump or dive into any type of water without first checking to see how deep it is. (Something I wish I had been told as a child)

·	Keep an eye out for others around you, so that people don’t hit you while splashing around or playing, and knock you out. Never push others into water.

·	Never swim underneath a diving board or platform.

·	Always check the water carefully before going off a diving board or a platform, to make sure nobody or nothing else is in the water.

·	Never, ever, swim alone.