Enjoying Your Pool Safely

Supervise children in the water AT ALL TIMES. Don’t step away for 30 seconds to go to the bathroom unless you have a replacement to watch them.

Never leave a child unattended in the water. According to the CDC, 1 in 5 people who die from drowning is under the age of 14. Always make sure a responsible adult is watching your child while they are playing in the water. If you are attending a gathering and there will be children there, make sure all the adults or at least several designated adults are attending the children.

Make sure the adults who are watching the children are not consuming alcohol. Even small amounts of alcohol can slow response time. It’s a good idea to have designated supervisors as you would a designated driver if you were consuming alcohol out with friends.

The importance of supervision isn’t only for large pools; even a small child in a splash pool could drown if they slip and get knocked unconscious. There have also been incidents of very young children falling asleep in pools and drowning because they don’t wake up in time, and their face ends up in the water.

Make sure your children know that if there is no adult present, they can’t be in the water. Any amount of water that is large enough to cover the nose and mouth can be a drowning hazard for a child, and you should treat it as such.

I highly recommend investing the money to get your children professional swimming lessons if you can afford it. Many local YMCAs offer seasonal classes both for children and adults taught by licensed instructors.

If you live in an area where there is a state park with a swimming area, your child may be able to attend swim classes there. Some towns have a community pool that holds programs for residents to learn how to swim as well.

If you can’t afford to get your children professional lessons, at least have an adult in your family who is a competent swimmer themselves teach children to swim. However, even with professional lessons, there’s no guarantee, so you should still supervise children in and around the water.

Unfortunately, even with careful supervision, accidents occur. It is for this reason that it’s a good idea to take a CPR training course. A quick web search can give you listings of local CPR training courses you can attend. Although it varies by location, a basic CPR course offered by the American Red Cross without anything additional will cost you under $100, with materials included.

Often, local community centers or religious organizations will have licensed instructors come in to do a course on-site. You can also check with your local volunteer emergency squad to learn about CPR courses. If you are in the healthcare or educational field, many employers will offer CPR training at little or no cost to their employees.

Most CPR training programs don’t need to be a long-term commitment. The courses usually only require a few hours of your time, unlike other safety courses that require multiple sessions for several days. Sometimes companies even offer online CPR courses, though in-person classes are more common.

At the end of the course, you will take a test the same day, and provided that you pass the test with the required score, you will be CPR certified. You must renew your CPR certification every two years by taking a refresher course.

While you are probably used to telling your children not to run near the pool, jump in headfirst, or swim alone, a commonly overlooked pool safety hazard is the pool drain. Pool drains are necessary for keeping the water clean and sanitary, but they present a safety hazard in themselves due to the suction power of the drain.

Don’t run the filters while you and your kid are swimming. Teach your children and your guests NOT to swim down near the drains and keep long hair away from them at all times. This goes for BOTH the pool and the spa.