Water Safety

SUPERVISION

Boy standing by fenceThere is only one thing in the world to protect your child against drowning - effective supervision. Among every other tip provided, this is the most important. 

Unfortunately, watching your children is not enough, nor are pool safety gates able to protect them from every hazardous water situation. Parents you must provide your child with the final layer of protection in the unfortunate event that supervision lapses - even momentarily - and a child ends up in the water alone. A moment's inattention does not have to cost a child his life. ISR's proven self-rescue training is the final layer, teaching your baby water self-rescue skills in a completely safe environment and giving him or her the competence to play in and around the water and giving parents the skills and knowledge to adequately supervise and protect their children from drowning.

Tomorrow may be too late. Take action today.

  • Provide Constant Eyes On Supervision. Never turn your back on your child around water, ever. Drowning is usually quick and silent and can occur in < 3 minutes.
  • Install Pool alarms and alarms on all doorways that access a pool area.
  • Permanent pool fencing with a self-latching gate.
  • Locks on doors and windows that lead to the pool (locks must be out of the child's reach).
  • Self-rescue Skills. If the above defense measures fail, your baby needs to know skills for self-rescue should she find herself in a potential drowning scenario. Infant Swimming Resource emphasizes water self-rescue skills as a comprehensive water-safety plan for young children.
  • Never Rely on Flotation Devices such as armbands, vests, rings or inflatable toys. These devices can suddenly shift, invert a child in the water. loose air, or slip beneath the child. They also promote a false sense of confidence for parent and child and reinforce a head-up posture which can interfere with learning effective swimming techniques.

To find out more about the importance of water safety, please view our Family Aquatic Safety List or visit the The Trevor "Birdie" Davis Water Safety Foundation website

Learn CPR

CPR is, at best, an after the fact emergency management procedure with an uncertain outcome. Learn CPR but do not rely on it to save your child from drowning.

THE RULES:
1. You are the C.E.O. Constant Eyes On adult supervision
2. Teach ALL the rules by your example.
3. Pool / Lake / Beach / Boat / EVERYWHERE

The three lines of YOUR RESOURCES are:
1. Segmented Active Adult Supervision
2. Fencing, permanent and alarmed
3. Survival Swimming, and check skills prior to all water recreation

If you did all of these things in and around the water with your child, you would be superhuman. You do not need ALL of them, just the ones for your family’s aquatic safety.

This document may be copied and used for your PRIVATE USE ONLY.  However, the organization of the information and the content represents the intellectual property of Harvey Barnett.  For other uses of this information, contact Harvey Barnett at PO Box 5857 Winter Park, FL 32793-5857  PRIOR to any commercial or other uses of transmission by any means, mechanical or electronic.