Water Safety: Keep Your Kids Safe All Year Long

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Water safety is important no matter what the season. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), drowning causes approximately 15 percent of the injury deaths amongst children aged 1 to 14 years.The World Congress on Drowning indicates that more than 80 percent of all drownings are preventable. Because prevention is the key to protecting your children, you must learn how to ensure their safety whenever they are in or near the family pool.

Prevention Techniques

• Install a reliable gate and/or an underwater/surface wave pool alarm.
• Set up a fence that is at least four-foot tall around your pool. Use gates that are self-closing and latching.
• Keep your pool in good working order, including all drains.
• If you use your house as a portion of the fence around your pool, install alarms on the doors that lead to the pool.
• Obtain or renew your CPR license at a site like ecprcertification.com/.
• Learn how to swim and practice water safety skills.
• Have rescue equipment within reach (i.e., long pole and safety ring).
• The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggests that children ages 1-4 should take swimming lessons. The AAP states that these lessons reduce a child’s risk of drowning.
• Always have a telephone near the pool.

Pool Safety During the Winter

• Remove climbable items.
• Purchase a winter safety pool cover.
• Maintain your pool and keep the water clear. This ensures that if someone does fall in, you can see him or her.
• Routinely drain/pump impenetrable pool covers and clean off any debris.

Winter Safety Pool Covers: Solid or Mesh

Originally, mesh fabric was the only pool cover option. After approximately 20 years installers suggested that there should be a solid material anchored to the deck. These suggestions led to the invention of a PVC reinforced vinyl pool cover. Three kinds of winter safety pool covers are available:

• Solid with drain panels
• Mesh
• Solid with a cover pump

With Mesh Covers, animals and children cannot fall in the pool, no water stains because it dries quickly after removal, it is lightweight, and there is no standing water so no cover pump is necessary. However, they are susceptible to degradation from UV rays, they allow contaminants to enter pool, and sunlight can penetrate the mesh and contribute to algae growth. This material also damages easily. While algae is not necessary dangerous, it can cause in ground pool liners to look discolored. If this happens, you may want to consider a solid winter cover after you replace your pool’s liner.

Solid covers with drain panels do not allow children and animals to fall through, they do not trap water, need no cover pump, resist damage from animals and debris, and inhibits algae growth. They do, however, allow contaminants to enter the pool through the drain panels, and are more expensive and heavier than mesh covers.

Solid covers, with cover pumps keep children and animals out, resist damage from animals and debris, inhibit algae growth by blocking the sun, maintain water balance, and block all contaminants from entering the pool. A cover pump is necessary, which means the added maintenance of unclogging it. It is also heavier and more expensive than mesh covers.

Creative Commons image by taberandrew

Tags: guest, parenting, water safety