Definitely, you need to take every precaution to ensure your child's safety. Of course, you are always careful about your child's safety, but how much do you know about your child's safety around the water? A new study shows that about 1,000 children drown each year between May-August. Besides, around 7,000 children end up in Emergency Centers each year due to drowning scares, especially in open water. Here we are going to discuss some effective tips to save children from drowning in water.

Why children are more at risk of drowning

Carelessness

Children don't know how to swim. When you leave your child in the pool to answer a ringing phone, your curious little one wishes to touch the water, and unwillingly falls and drowns.

Familiar surroundings

You will be surprised to know that drowning can happen silently in familiar surroundings- in your own pool or in the pool of family members, relatives, or friends. The reason is that you were then indifferent to your child thinking that it is a familiar place.

Unexpectedly

Sometimes drowning can happen unexpectedly. For example, you are making breakfast or lunch and your child slips out the backdoor to play in the pool. About 69% of drownings among children 0-4 years old happen during the time they don't know how to swim.

10 best tips to keep your child safe from drowning in water

Bath Seat Precautions

Remember, babies can drown as little as one or two inches of water. Never leave your baby alone or under the supervision of another child in the bath seat. Your bathtubs, buckets, and even toilets have a drowning risk. So, always try to keep the toilet doors closed. Make sure you store empty buckets and tubs upside-down so they don't collect water.

Check your pool drain

If your pool has a single main drain system, make sure to install protective measures like anti-entrapment drain covers and a safety vacuum release system to release the suction automatically. Besides, make sure drain covers are secure and in good condition.

Home protection

Most of the time children leave home but adults don't know that. So if you do not find your child, you should check the pool first. You can prevent children from going to the pool area unsupervised by installing fencing around the pool with a self-closing, self-latching gate. Besides, you can remove any toys floating in the pool that attract kids into the water.

Door and window alarms

If you cannot resist your child from going to the pool or pond, the best thing you can do is to install door and window alarms in your house. Make sure to place an alarm on every door and window of your house.

However, alarms must be active at all times so that you can get alerts whenever someone is entering or exiting the house. Besides, of course, put locks high out of a child's reach. This system will be helpful both for child protection and for unknown persons from entering the house.

Learn CPR

You need to learn CPR and find out the nearest AED, especially in the case of drowning. As safety experts encourage you to learn the basics of hands-only CPR, you can do it to make you prepared in case of an emergency. Parents, caregivers, and older children should know how to respond in an emergency.

It is necessary to practice safe rescue techniques. Tell your child not to jump in the pool to help someone who is drowning, rather teach them to "reach, throw, don't go". Explain to them to hold out a pool skimmer, fishing rod, oar, or long branch for the victim to reach. Let them understand that they shouldn't enter the water because they could drown too.

Full attention

Your 100 % attention is necessary when your child is near water. You must stay off your phone and other activities and focus on your child in the water. Don't allow them to go into the deep water. It would be better if you also accompany them in the water. In the case of young kids, hold their hands when they are in the water. Besides, keep a phone nearby in case of an emergency.

Enroll in swimming lessons

Swimming can save your child from almost 80% drowning risk. Make sure your child should know how to tread water and float. But it is not so easy to swim any time. If your child does not know the techniques of swimming, he may not take the risk of swimming.

However, swimming lessons can give your kids the confidence to swim. Besides, a swimming lesson is necessary to save your child from any type of water-related danger. So, you can enroll your lovely kids in any swimming lessons nearby you.

Accompany an adult

Children are curious but not responsible. Remember, even an older person who is a more experienced swimmer should swim with a friend or someone who can help in case of emergency.

So, make sure your child accompanies an adult whenever he or she goes to the pool or pond. If an adult stays with your children, they will feel secure and get more confidence to swim. Besides, it will minimize the danger of drowning.

Proper equipment

Make sure your child wears a coast guard approved life jacket or personal flotation device (PFD) whenever going to the water bodies.

Naturally, air-filled water aids like water wings, pool floats, or noodles do not count as a PFD and they may not be able to protect against drowning. So, be sure your children wear the proper equipment before going swimming.

Assign a "water watcher"

Assigning a 'water watcher" when you are at a pool party, picnic, or another gathering can diminish the danger. You should ensure the watcher puts away their phone and focuses on supervising the children. You need to do it even if there are lifeguards. After 15 or 20 minutes, they can switch with another person.

Bottom Line

These water safety tips can reduce your child's risk of drowning! These guidelines each add another layer of protection to help keep your child safe around pools, lakes, and rivers. Pools should be a source of summer fun, not worry. Exercise caution and learn how to respond during an emergency to keep swim time enjoyable!