Safety Around The Pool

In Texas’ summer heat, a swimming pool should be one of the most inviting and enjoyable places for children to play. But to keep it that way, it’s vital that kids and adults heed certain safety tips. Don’t worry: They don’t mean you can’t splash and yell. They just mean you can have more fun while being wary of risky missteps – or mis-splashes!

One area of any pool which requires great awareness is the pool drain, often on the bottom but sometimes on the sides. Drains use suction to draw water from the pool as part of a filtration system. A child has smaller hands, feet and other body parts which can become wedged into a drain, and a child often isn’t strong enough to pull free. In fact, many adults are unable to pull free from certain drains, in which hair or parts of a swimsuit also can become entangled.

Fortunately, it’s possible to apply anti-entrapment drain covers on pool drains to ensure they can’t do harm. If the pool you use is your own private pool, or a pool provided by a club to which you belong, you should be able to get such covers for its drains. If not, you could request such drain covers from the pool’s owner.The same suction problems and the same solutions also extend to hot tubs and their drains.Beyond this, be aware of the location of pool drains, and stay away from them.  They can be extremely harmful in the worst circumstances.

Adults also can safeguard a swimming pool by installing a fence around it with a self-latching, self-closing gate. That way, a small child can’t wander toward the pool and fall into it. As a comparable precaution, hot tubs should be covered when not in use. Also, don’t leave toys lying around near a pool or hot tub. One of the best safeguards for pool safety, of course, is a wary adult. Adults should supervise all activities by children in pools, at all times. Ideally, adults also should know CPR, enabling them to help drowning victims. Drownings can happen silently and swiftly, so diverting your attention even for a few moments can prove fatal to a child. At all times means at all times.

As for kids, they should be taught not to run on any surface near a pool. Such surfaces can be wet and slippery, and a sudden fall on hard concrete can be dangerous. Also, children should not dive into any pool area that’s less than nine feet deep, Safe Kids USA advises.

All this doesn’t mean kids can’t have summer pool fun. It just means they can have more fun knowing that they’re following safety guidelines, and that their parents have safeguarded their pool environment.