Pool safety this summer

WITH summer approaching, it is important to be prepared to ensure your swimming pool is safe for children. The home pool environment is often a place of fun and enjoyment. However, home pools are associated with a high risk of drowning, particularly for children aged up to four years old. Royal Life Saving Australia has provided information on keeping children safe around your pool this summer. Most children who drown in home pools fall in by accident. Children can drown quickly and silently, often without making any noise or splashing. Young children are naturally curious and attracted to water but do not yet understand the concept of danger, while parents can become complacent about safety around a familiar home environment. In cases of child drowning in home pools, designated supervisors were often distracted by everyday tasks, such as a conversation with another person, answering the door or attending to another child, all of which give a young child time to wander away unnoticed. Children have commonly gained access to the pool area through a fence or gate which had fallen into disrepair, the lack of a fence or a gate which had been deliberately propped open. When left in and around the pool, pool toys can attract the attention of children who may try to get through or over a fence or reach out to try and get the toy from the pool's edge. For this reason, all pool toys need to be securely stored out of sight and reach of children and never left in the pool when not in use. Strategies for the prevention of child drowning are well understood and include active adult supervision, restricting a child's access to water (commonly using correctly installed and regularly maintained pool fencing), teaching children water safety skills and learning how to respond in case of an emergency. Keeping children safe around water constitutes following the four key actions of Royal Life Saving's Keep Watch Campaign: • Supervise: actively supervise children around water. • Restrict: restrict children's access to water. • Teach: teach children water safety skills. • Respond: learn how to respond in the case of an emergency. Children must be supervised by an adult when in, on or around water. Active supervision means focusing all of your attention on your child, all of the time. You must be within arms' reach, interacting with your child and be ready to enter the water in case of an emergency. Research shows that any distractions, such as using mobile phones or doing household chores, while children are near water increases their risk of drowning. Teaching children water safety skills is an important step in ensuring they grow up to become confident around water. Familiarise children with water by enrolling them in water awareness classes, spending time with them in the water and establishing basic water safety rules. All parents are encouraged to learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Knowing how to respond in an emergency could mean the difference between life and death. Often at parties and gatherings people can assume that someone else is watching their child. In fact, it is possible that no one is supervising. Nominating a designated child supervisor during parties and gatherings is a way of ensuring that children are supervised at all times. A designated child supervisor should be chosen during parties and gatherings. This is an effective way of ensuring that children are supervised at all times. If this person needs to leave for any reason, ensure a new supervisor is appointed or regularly rotate the supervision responsibilities. If alcohol is being consumed, supervisors should be sober.

Pool safety this summer

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