This article is from a chapter in my book Feeling Good Living Low Toxin in Community and Everyday life.  There is an entire section in this book on raising healthy children in the 21st Century.  Available on Amazon

Drowning is the leading cause of accidental death among children one to four-years old.

Never leave your child unsupervised in or around a pool or any container of water and never let your child out of your sight for more than a few seconds.

Tips to protect your child:

• For every child that drowns, there are five children that are treated in an emergency for near
• 75% of the children that drown are
• Always make use of children’s floatation devices. Know that if unsupervised, your child could still drown.
• An approved life vest is more secure than inflatable swimming floats.
• Learn CPR that includes child CPR. Check with the American Red Cross for classes
• At 6 months and up take a swim class. American Cross often offers them. Taking a class with your children reduces the risk of drowning by 88%.
• One adult should always be present that can perform
• Have a well-rehearsed plan for a drowning
• Only allow the child into water where they can stand if they are under 4.
• Make sure you have a 5 ft fence around the entire pool.
• The gate must have a working self-closing and self-latching closure. It must open away from the pool. Latches should be 54” or higher.
• Running in a pool area should be
• An adult should always be an arm’s length away from any young
• Be prepared, Keep a shepherd’s hook, a life preserver, and other rescue equipment near the pool with easy
• Keep a telephone close, away from the Keep the phone where you have access to it.
• Forbid young children to jump or dive into the
• Never let children swim

• Make sure that children wear proper
• Impress upon children the seriousness of the No games, consideration always, no pushing others into the pool.
• When swim time is over, remove all toys from the pool so that the child isn’t tempted to go into the pool alone to
• When pool time Is over, secure the pool so that children cannot get back into
• After use, empty blow-up
• No tricycles in the pool
• No electrical appliances near the
• By law, have a fence that surrounds the pool to keep children out.
• Fences should be a minimum of 4 ft high. No objects should be close to the fence that could help a child climb over it. The fence should not have footholds or handholds that could be used for climbing. Chain link fences are a bad choice.
• Have a loud alarm on the door to the pool area.
• There is an alarm that you should install that is on the sides of the pool under the water that detects
• If the pool is above ground, remove steps and ladders when the pool is not in

Designate an adult to be the “watcher ” with  a bright badge so that they are easy to spot.