Water Safety & Drowning Prevention
Drowning Prevention
In the pool, at the beach or even in your bathroom, water can be dangerous to your kids if you don’t take the right precautions. Drowning can happen any time of year, but parents need to be particularly vigilant during warmer months, when the number of drownings skyrockets. Below are resources to help keep your kids safe.
Child Drownings
Ages 1-4
Drowning is the leading cause of death in US children ages 1-4 (American Academy of Pediatrics; CDC WISQARS)
Pool Safety
69%
of children younger than 5 years were not expected to be in the pool (American Academy of Pediatrics)
Home Drowning Prevention Tips
- Always stay within an arm’s reach of your child when he or she is in or near the bathtub, toilet, pools, spas or buckets. Never leave your child alone or in the care of older children during bath time.
- Once bath time is over, immediately drain the tub.
- Empty all buckets, containers and wading pools immediately after use. Store them upside-down and out of children’s reach.
- Keep toilet lids closed and use toilet seat locks.
- Never leave your child unattended in a tub or around any other body of water, even if he or she knows how to swim.
- Keep doors to bathrooms and laundry rooms closed.
- Baby bath seats must be attached to the side of the bath tub with a locking arm to secure it. Do not use bath rings with suction cups as they do not meet U.S. safety standards.
Pool and Hot Tub Tips
Prevent Drowning:
- Actively supervise your children around water at all times by assigning a water watcher and have a phone nearby to call for help in an emergency.
- Floatation devices are not a substitute for touch supervision. There is no such thing as a “learn to swim” aid. This term is simply for marketing. NEVER use blow-up floatation devices such as arm floaties or neck rings, as they can deflate.
- Make sure your pool has four-sided fencing and a self-closing, self-latching gate to prevent a child from wandering into the pool area unsupervised. Mesh fencing is preferred so that children cannot climb. In addition, hot tubs should be covered and locked when not in use.
- If a child is in the water, so should the parent. Touch supervision is required any time a child is in the water.
- Install a door alarm, a window alarm or both to alert you if a child wanders into the pool area unsupervised.
- If you have a pool, remove doggy doors and pet entrances to prevent children from accessing outside spaces.
- From the start, teach children to never go near or in water without an adult.
- Children older than 1 year will benefit from swim lessons. Infants younger than 1 year are developmentally unable to learn the complex movements, such as breathing, that are necessary to swim. Lessons should focus on survival skills.
- Your pediatrician is a good resource to help know if your toddler is ready for swim lessons.
- Learn CPR, and start with rescue breaths before chest compressions in drowning victims.
