These General Water Safety Tips will help you stay safe in, on, and around the water! Also check out our additional safety tips below for specialized aquatic activities.
Check out this site, plenty of information on safety tips that will keep your children and yourselves safe.
Summer Pool Safety
This information is from a long article on summer safety from the American
Academy of Pediatrics: SUMMER SAFETY TIPS
http://www.aap.org/default.htm
*Never leave your child alone in or near a pool, not even for a second or two. When infants or toddlers are in or around water, an adult should be within arms length at all times.
*Make sure any adults watching children know CPR and how to rescue a child.
*Surround your pool with a sturdy five-foot fence on all sides and make sure the gates self-close and latch at a height above the reach of young children.
*Don't use inflatable swimming aids. They are not a substitute for approved life vests and can give your child a false sense of security
*If your child is younger than four years old he is not developmentally ready for swim lessons, If you enroll him in a swim program at a younger age, do NOT assume that this will decrease his risk of drowning, and DO continue to keep a close watch on him when he's in the pool.
Heat Stress Hard on Exercising Children Exercising children do not adopt to temperature extremes as effectively as adults do, according to an American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement released in July. This may effect their well-being, their performance, and increase their risk for heat-related illness such as heat exhaustion or fatal heat stroke.
(Climatic Heat Stress and the Exercising Child and Adolescent in Pediatrics Volume 106, Number 01 July 2000, pp 158 - 159 )
Exercising children can dissipate heat effectively at lower temperatures, but when the air temperature is greater than 95 degrees F (35 degrees C) their exercise tolerance begins to drop. The higher the air temperature, the greater the effect on the child; humidity must also be considered, as it is sometimes even more important than air temperature.
When the climate becomes warmer, either because of a move to a new location or because of a sudden change in the weather, exercising persons must take time to become acclimatized. Children take longer than adults to adjust to the higher temperatures and may need as many as 8 to 10 exposures of 30 to 45 minutes each to adjust. These exposures should be taken one per day or one every other day.
It's important to make sure that children drink enough while exercising, as they often do not feel the need to drink and may become dehydrated. Dehydration can lead to a large increase in core body temperature, making the children even more at risk for heat-related illnesses. If children don't want to drink plain water, a flavored beverage may be offered.
The AAP recommends:
1. The intensity of activities that
last 15 minutes or more should be reduced when solar radiation, air temperature
and relative humidly are above critical levels. The article has a table with
specific recommendations.
2. When first starting a strenuous exercise program
or after traveling to a warmer climate, exercise should be both less intense and
of a shorter duration than usual. Intensity and duration can be slowly increased
over 10 to 14 days.
3. Make sure children drink enough to be well-hydrated
before prolonged physical activity, They should also be made to drink
periodically during the activity, even if they do not feel thirsty.
4.
Clothing should be light-colored and light-weight and have just one absorbent
layer. Sweat-covered clothes should be replaced with dry clothes.
