A Guide to Keeping Your Children Safe While Swimming
Although many children have already graduated for a couple of weeks, real summer does not come until 1) the summer solstice and 2) the pool water is warm enough to swim in. so now is the time to discuss everything about swimming and drowning so we can keep our kids safe this summer.
Teach them to swim
Let’s start with the basics – actually teach them how to swim, which will hopefully end up being the ultimate sailing safety tip. With a baby, you can start by simply teaching him how to feel comfortable in the water and even diving under the water. To do this, use the old blowing trick :
Obviously this is just the beginning and not real swimming, but it helps them get used to swimming.
So when to start real swimming lessons? Well, earlier than we thought. The American Academy of Pediatrics used to say that lessons were most helpful starting at age 4, but this year they changed their minds, saying that lessons could start to be beneficial around a baby’s first birthday.
If you are looking for an inexpensive swimming lesson, you may want to consider the YMCA Water Safety Program, which is offered for little or no cost. The program consists of eight 40-minute lessons that teach you how to keep afloat, how to step on the water, and what to do if you see someone in the water in need of help.
Drowning prevention
But, nevertheless, not to allow these lessons to lull you into a false sense of security . Learning to swim will help young children start learning the basics of scuba diving, swimming and easy movement in the water. This does not mean that now you can take your eyes off them.
And oddly enough, finding a drowning person is more difficult than you think. Films and television do not depict all this spanking, gasping and screaming. No, in real life it is much quieter and harder to notice. We’ll show you what it looks like here:
If conventional drowning isn’t dire or scary enough, you’ve probably also heard of “dry drowning” or “secondary drowning.” Dry drowning is when a person sucks water into the trachea, then into the lungs, and dies after a few hours or days. While it is important to understand the signs and symptoms of dry drowning, this does not mean your child is in danger every time they swallow some pool water.
On open water
Great, they’ve gone through their lessons, you can watch for signs of drowning, and your kids are like fish in a pool. Maybe they are now 9 or 10 years old and have been swimming with skill for many years. You can finally relax on a family vacation on the lake / river / ocean, right?
No no no. Swimming in open water with cliffs, strong currents and limited visibility is a completely different matter.
Be especially vigilant in open water and teach your kids that swimming is different from swimming in a pool.
You can relax on this rule though
There is one thing that we allow you to be less alert about: eat and swim. There is no real health reason for kids to wait 10 minutes, 30 minutes, or a whole damn hour after eating before they can go back to the pool.
Take them out, feed them a sandwich and send them back.