American Medical Association Family Medical Guide - American Medical Association [68]
Water Safety
Water is an inviting place for family fun, whether at the beach, at a pool, or on a lake or river. But drownings and water-related injuries can occur quickly. The most important step you can take to keep your family safe in and around water is to make sure that every member of your family knows how to swim.
To stay safe whenever you are swimming, boating, or engaging in other water sports, follow these water-safety tips:
• Learn to swim.
• Swim only in supervised areas.
• Obey all posted rules and signs.
• Don’t drink alcohol.
• Check the weather conditions; stop swimming in bad weather.
• Know what to do in an emergency.
• Don’t swim too far from safety.
• Make sure a pool is deep enough for diving or jumping by easing yourself into the water first.
• Wear a life jacket when boating or rafting.
• Protect yourself from the sun.
Water Safety for Kids
In the United States, drowning is the leading cause of accidental death in children under age 4. A young child can drown in a few seconds in 1 inch of water left in a bucket or wading pool. Even older children are at risk—drowning is a common cause of death in children under age 15. Follow these simple measures to protect children from water accidents:
• Always supervise children closely when they are around water, and make sure they wear a US Coast Guard-approved life preserver or life jacket whenever they are in a boat or near a body of water. Don’t rely on inflatable toys or water wings to keep a child afloat.
• Never leave young children alone in the tub, even for a few seconds. Bathtub seats are not safety devices and can tip over, trapping a child underwater.
• Empty the bathtub and all buckets immediately after use.
• Install a toilet lid lock to prevent children from falling into the toilet.
• Sign children up for swimming lessons at about age 5. Children younger than 5 are not yet ready to learn how to swim and may take risks around water.
• Teach children never to swim alone.
• Warn children about the dangers of walking or skating on frozen lakes or rivers.
Home Swimming Pools
Nationwide, hundreds of drownings occur in home swimming pools each year. Most of the casualties are children under age 5. Young children are unpredictable and need to be supervised constantly around water. It takes only a second for a child to become submerged—with no time to scream for help. Some simple measures can lower the chances of having an accident in your home pool:
• Never leave a child in a pool unattended.
• Keep a phone by the pool so you can call for help quickly.
• Learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and insist that all your baby-sitters learn it too.
• Don’t get a home swimming pool until your youngest child is 5 years old.
• Encircle your pool with a self-locking fence that is at least 48 inches tall and has vertical bars spaced no more than 4 inches apart. The fence should completely separate the pool from the house. Don’t leave furniture or toys near the fence that a child could climb on to reach the pool.
• Keep a pole, rope, and personal flotation device near the pool for rescue purposes.
• Make sure that no standing water has collected in the pool cover; drownings can occur in inches of water.
• Prevent electric shock by keeping electrical appliances away from the pool.
At the Beach
The beach is a great place to take your family for recreation. To make each trip to the beach as safe as possible, follow these beach-safety measures:
• Stay inside the designated swimming area, preferably in sight of a lifeguard.
• Don’t swim alone.
• Check beach conditions for bad weather or other potential hazards.
• Don’t swim near piers, rafts, docks, pilings, or diving platforms—you could injure your head, neck, or spine, or someone could