Water safety for children - is learning to swim enough?
by Grace on June 16th, 2008
When Alicia of Mental Health Notes showed me this video of a 6-year old saving a drowning friend, I realized how important it really is to teach our children water survival techniques. The American Red Cross wrote a comprehensive list of water safety tips for children, from pools, lakes and rivers, ocean, water parks, scuba diving and many other venues and activities. I’ll summarize some of them here.
Keeping Children Safe In, On, and Around the Water
Maintain constant supervision. Watch children around any water environment (pool, stream, lake, tub, toilet, bucket of water), no matter what skills your child has acquired and no matter how shallow the water. For younger children, practice “Reach Supervision” by staying within an arm’s length reach.
Don’t rely on substitutes. The use of flotation devices and inflatable toys cannot replace parental supervision. Such devices could suddenly shift position, lose air, or slip out from underneath, leaving the child in a dangerous situation.
Enroll children in a water safety course or Learn-to-Swim classes. Your decision to provide your child with an early aquatic experience is a gift that will have infinite rewards. These courses encourage safe practices. You can also purchase a Water Safety Handbook at the Red Cross Store.
Parents should take a CPR course. Knowing these skills can be important around the water and you will expand your capabilities in providing care for your child. You can contact your local Red Cross to enroll in a CPR course.
General Water Safety Tips:
Learn to swim. The best thing anyone can do to stay safe in and around the water is to learn to swim. Always swim with a buddy; never swim alone.
Swim in areas supervised by a lifeguard.
Read and obey all rules and posted signs.
Children or inexperienced swimmers should take precautions, such as wearing a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal floatation device (PFD) when around the water.
Watch out for the dangerous “too’s” – too tired, too cold, too far from safety, too much sun, too much strenuous activity.
Set water safety rules for the whole family based on swimming abilities (for example, inexperienced swimmers should stay in water less than chest deep).
Use a feet-first entry when entering the water.
Enter headfirst only when the area is clearly marked for diving and has no obstructions.
However, reading a post of Marijke at WombWithin - prevent drownings - made me question if learning to swim is enough. There is a difference between learning to swim and learning to survive in water. Children may panic when they fall into the water unexpectedly. Knowing what to do may just save that child’s life. There is a swimming school in Florida that teaches children and adults water survival skills, but we really need more of these programs across the nation. Marijke has a contest that gives away a DVD from the Baby Otter Swim School on just that - life-saving pool and home safety tips. Contest ended, sorry.
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POSTED IN: First Aid and Safety, Fitness, Sports and Outdoors
When Alicia of Mental Health Notes showed me this video of a 6-year old saving a drowning friend, I realized how important it really is to teach our children water survival techniques. The American Red Cross wrote a comprehensive list of water safety tips for children, from pools, lakes and rivers, ocean, water parks, scuba diving and many other venues and activities. I’ll summarize some of them here. 
3 opinions for Water safety for children - is learning to swim enough?
Angelique
Jun 16, 2008 at 8:54 am
You know, my son is almost five and can swim really, really well. But I would never trust him in the water without me or my husband (or a responsible adult.)
Even adults can panic in the water; I think children are probably more prone to freak out and forget what they’ve learned.
Never forget that kids drown in bathtubs. If that can happen, anything can happen.
Gina
Jun 16, 2008 at 4:40 pm
I really need to get the girls into some swimming and water safety lessons. We are rarely around water, pools or anything, but when we are, my girls just love it. I myself don’t know how to swim and I do too panic in the water, it would be beneficial to my kids if they didn’t have to go thru that as well.
Alicia Sparks, NAMI Affiliation Leader
Jun 17, 2008 at 12:19 am
My sister and I (and all the kids in my little community) pretty much grew up in the water, as our community swimming pool was quite the happening (and only, haha) place to be in the summers. However, we all still took swimming classes just the same. But I can’t remember learning about surviving in the water, as you mentioned, and that’s so important. Great tips, Grace!
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