Top 10 Pool Safety Tips

By: Annie Malone

It's the heat of the summer and what better way to spend it with your kids then at the pool.  We all know it can be almost impossible to remove those kids from the swimming pool once they are in.  Here are 10 top safety tips for the pool that we would like to share with you to enjoy your summer:

1. Never Leave Kids Unattended:  Make sure that some one is always watching the kids in the pool even if the kids know how to swim. 

2. Create a Pool Safety Toolkit:  Have a toolkit near your pool that includes a first aid kit, a pair of scissors to cut hair or clothing if caught, a charged portable phone to call 911, and a flotation device.

3.  Keep your Pool locked and Secure:  Install childproof locks on your exterior doors and pool and gate alarms to alert you when children go near the water.

4.  Enforce Water Safety Rules:  No running, jumping, chicken fighting and dunking in or around the pool area. 

5.  Learn Water Safety Skills:  Learn to perform CPR on children and adults and understand the basics of life-saving in case there is an emergency.

6.  Enroll your Children in Swim Class:   Put your children in swim lessons as early as possible.  They have basic lessons for children under the age of 1 where they teach the babies to roll and float on their backsides. 

7.  Remove all toys from Pool when not in use:  Do not leave toys in the pool when they are not being used.  This is a temptation to kids to jump in the pool unsupervised to play with the toys.

8.  Pool Maintenance: Ensure your pool has compliant drain covers and a spa cover in good working condition.

9.  Avoid distractions:  According to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 88 percent of young drowning victims were under some form of supervision at the time they drowned — and in a startling 46 percent of cases, the child who drowned was under the supervision of both parents. So stay close by — in the pool if necessary, depending on the age of your child – and don't let yourself look away, even for a minute.

10.  Entrapments:  Keep children away from pool drains, pipes, and other openings to avoid hair or clothing to be caught in the entrapments.