When everything goes to plan, you can’t beat a little bit of family vacation time.
The build-up, the excitement, the new things to see and do … and it’s often the strangest of things that get talked about for years to come, like Dad coming out of the sea with a crab pincered to his shorts.
Kids need boundaries, or they’ll spill over into doing things that threaten their own safety without even realizing it.
This is a simple rule that every kid can follow. If their toes can’t touch the bottom of the pool, then this is where they must stop and turn back.
Accidents are much easier to prevent than they are to deal with once they’ve occurred, and the “if your toes can’t touch the bottom” rule is one way to miss out on serious yet easily preventable pool-related accidents.
Source: Pexels.
Inspect the pool’s drainage covers (make sure they are in place)
Pools are the fun part of the hotel that everybody likes to enjoy at some point during their stay. Getting the children out of the pool is, in fact, harder than getting them in it.
Pools are not oversized static puddles. They have flow. In and out. Fresh clean water comes in, older dirtier water flows out. That’s the plan, at least.
But the underwater drains used to suck the water away pose a risk where they are uncovered.
Children may experience difficulty in battling against the pull of these drains, meaning they could get stuck with serious consequences. That is why you must always ensure to double-check that all pool drainage covers are in place.
Source: Pexels.
Time to get serious – CPR
If you or no one in your party knows CPR, and if there is not a pool attendant who is trained to save lives in the event of a drowning situation, you may wish to be extra vigilant when letting your children use the pool.
Children are adventurous and wish to experience swimming in the deep end. However, they are most likely not strong swimmers yet, and could run into difficulty when swimming out into the middle of the pool and realizing they don’t have the confidence to either continue to an edge or to turn back.
This can mean the child panics and begins to lose the ability to swim, with flailing limbs and water coming up over their face. It would only take under a minute of this happening for your child to ‘inhale’ a serious amount of water that could effectively be described as drowning – CPR may even be required to revive the child.
If you can’t guarantee that the relevant CPR skills are on hand or that the pool is being watched at all times by a responsible adult, the pool may not be safe for your child.
