Five Tips for Keeping Kids Safe Near the Water This Summer: From the USA Swimming Foundation

With summer in full swing, lots of families are headed to the pool to cool off!

I love to bring Hayden to the pool, but it always makes me nervous to be around the water. I always make sure to keep my eye on him at all times.

Recently, Olympic Gold Medalist Cullen Jones, a survivor of a near-drowning incident at age five and the first African-American male to hold a world record in swimming came to St. Louis to speak about water safety and to give local kids a swim lesson.

Did you know that each year, more than 3,400 people drown in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and more than one in five fatal drowning victims are children younger than 14.

Here are five tips for keeping children safe near the water, from the USA Swimming Foundation.

1. Teach children to swim. It’s the best way to be safer in the water. Research shows that parents are the most influential factors in whether or not a child learns to swim. Only 13 percent of children from non-swimming households will ever learn to swim, according to national research conducted by the University of Memphis for USA Swimming. (2008)
2. Make sure a responsible adult is watching the water at all times. Drowning can be completely silent, and most child drownings occur when the victim has been out of sight for less than five minutes. (Consumer Product Safety Commission)
3. Remind kids to always obey the rules of the pool and remind them not to jump on or dunk other swimmers, and not to jump or dive unless they know how deep the water is.
4. Require kids to always swim with a buddy.
5. Remember, you don’t have to be at a pool to drown. Lakes, rivers, large puddles and any other bodies of water also require caution. Make sure your child knows how to swim, whether or not they’ll be around a pool this summer.

These are great tips to remember and share with others!