POOL AND HOT TUB SAFETY - Safe Kids Worldwide

WATER SAFETY FOR YOUR CHILDREN THIS SUMMER

POOL AND HOT TUB SAFETY

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Sources by Amanda Bach

Did you know that children can drown in as little as one inch of water?

Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death among children ages 1 to 14. Children can drown in a variety of circumstances – during water recreation (such as swimming and boating) or when a young child is left unsupervised for a short time in the bathtub or around the home with access to nearby pools and hot tubs.

A child can drown in as little as one inch of water, and drowning is usually quick and silent. A child will lose consciousness two minutes after submersion, with irreversible brain damage occurring within four to six minutes.

Parents and caregivers need to understand the dangers of drowning and know the proper steps to take to protect children.

FOCUS ON POOL AND HOT TUB SAFETY

What You Need to Know

In 2003, 285 children died from accidental drowning in a swimming pool. Every year, thousands more are treated in emergency rooms for near-drownings.

Most young children who drown in swimming pools were last seen in the home, had been missing from sight for less than five minutes and were in the care of one or both parents at the time of the drowning.

Two-thirds of parents have little or no awareness of the risk of entrapment!

One of the most horrific ways for a child to be injured or killed in a pool or hot tub is entrapment.

Entrapment occurs when part of a child’s body becomes attached to a drain because of the powerful suction of a pool or hot tub’s filtration system.

It also can occur when a child’s hair or swimsuit gets tangled in the drain or on an underwater object, such as a ladder.

Don’t be one of the 66 % of parents who have little or no awareness about entrapment risks. Find out how to protect your children in pools and hot tubs.

What You Can Do

For your children's safety, follow these simple safety tips.

Pool and Hot Tub Safety Tips

Preventing Entrapment:

Warn your children about the dangers of drain entanglement and entrapment, and teach them to stay away from the drain.

Install protection to prevent entrapment if you own a pool or hot tub. For new pools or hot tubs, install multiple drains or use a no-drain circulation system. If you do have drains, protective measures include anti-entrapment drain covers and a safety vacuum release system to automatically release suction and shut down the pump should entrapment occur.

Preventing General Drowning:

Actively supervise your children around water, and have a phone nearby to call for help in an emergency.

Make sure your pool has four-sided fencing and a self-closing, self-latching gate, to prevent a child from wandering into the pool area unsupervised. In addition, hot tubs should be covered and locked when not in use.

Install a door alarm, a window alarm or both to alert you if a child wanders into the pool area unsupervised.

Sources:

Safe Kids Worldwide
1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20004
Tel: (202) 662-0600
Fax: (202) 393-2072

Contributor - Amanda Bach is co-founder and co-creator of SingleMom.com. The co-creator currently resides in California and Washington, DC. She was raised by a single mom and so she learned it first hand how difficult it was to watch her mom struggled everyday life. And that is the main reason she co-founded SingleMom.com to create this wonderful Website/organization. Her energy, natural creative ability and superior business intuition make her contributions to this website immeasurable. As you know, lots of tough decisions are made as a parent, let alone as a single parent. Her hobbies include volunteer, Internet, reading, ballet, traveling, snowboarding, and especially wine & food.