Keeping your family safe by the pool this Summer

This is a collaborative post

Ask my daughters the one thing they look forward to most about a family holiday and the answer will be pretty much instantaneous – the swimming pool. Erin absolutely loves the water and has done since a very young age, so most of our holidays revolve pretty much around swimming, splashing and jumping, mixed in with us bribing her regularly to try and remove her from the water before she goes wrinkly.

In recent weeks Erin has learned to swim without her armbands, a huge achievement for which I am incredibly proud of her. Her Nanny and Grandad regularly take her to our local swimming baths and through lots of practice, repetition and sheer determination, she has finally mastered the doggy paddle (as well as a bit of backwards crawl – something I can’t even do myself at the age of 35!).

Whilst our local swimming baths are a pretty safe environment, I am always still very cautious when it comes to pool side safety, particularly if we visit pools in villas or apartments abroad, or if we visit friends who have a pool in their garden (of which we are lucky enough to know a few!)

Quite shockingly, drowning is the second biggest cause of accidental deaths in the UK for children under 5 years of age and on average, 12 children died each year between 2008 and 2014, with swimming pools being on of the three most common places where drowning occurs.

With the help of Balustrade Components Guide “How to Improve Pool Safety” – here are my hints and tips for keeping you and your little ones safe around the pool this summer.

When looking at holiday villas or apartments, check whether the pool has a glass balustrade or other partition to ensure children do not accidently slip in or could wonder off unassisted and get into difficulty. Some outdoor pools have anti slip flooring like those from HR Kiln – which are far less likely to cause slips, trips or falls on a wet surface.
It might not be the first thing on your mind, but always ensure that the pool you are taking your family to has public liability insurance, that way if you were to suffer from a swimming pool related injury, you can rest assured you will be covered.
Find out whether the pool has a lifeguard on duty, or at a very minimum life saving equipment should you or a member of your family get into difficulty. For peace of mind, an on duty lifeguard can respond within seconds, so would always be the preferred choice for me.
Avoid swimming alone – as appealing as those late evening swims can be once the children are in bed and you have five minutes peace to yourself, avoid swimming completely on your own or without someone close by in case you get into difficulty. Even confident swimmers can have accidents.
Always check the water depth before jumping or diving into a pool – many swimming pool related injuries are caused by people jumping into water which isn’t deep enough, causing damage to their ankles, feet or legs.
Look out for changes in the depth of the pool – some pools have a slanted incline as the pool gets deeper where as others have a larger step down. There is nothing worse than this coming as a shock, so ensure you have familiarised yourself with the layout of the pool and floor surface before the children get in.
Ensure that children have floatation aids or armbands or have had adequate swimming lessons to be able to swim unassisted.
Never run around the edges of a swimming pool as the surfaces can be extremely slippery, the result of which could be a bad fall or bang to the head.
Keep an eye on your children at all times, even when they are within close proximity, it can take a mere matter of seconds for a child to get into trouble in the water.
If the weather turns bad and a thunderstorm hits, do not use the pool – water is a very good conductor of electricity and its just not worth the risk!