5 Tips to Help Prevent Child Drowning

Drowning is the leading cause of death of young children in Florida.

Let that sink in for a minute. Almost every child drowning death that leads to this horrible statistic is preventable with the correct measures in place. The following recommendations help keep your children safe but are no substitute for diligently watching your children.

1. Know the risks of the area you’re in.
   1. Are you going to the beach? If so certain beaches in Tampa Bay have much stronger currents than others and should be visited with a higher level of caution when going with small children. Always check Rip Current & weather Advisories before venturing out. Click HERE to go directly to the watery advisory page of NOAA for Tampa Bay.
2. If your child is going to be at a home with a pool ask questions before they go.
   1. What safety precautions are going to be taken? Who will be the responsible adults providing constant supervision to prevent a child drowning? If you wait till you arrive with the child then you may feel pressured into accepting a bad situation that you would have said no to if you knew what was in store.
3. Make sure all openings leading to a pool have a working lock.
   1. One step better than that is to make sure they have an audible alarm on each door.
4. If you really want your child to go and still don’t feel comfortable with the safety precautions in place, you can still take action yourself.
   1. For under $200 there are a few options that let you take your child’s safety into your own hands. Search for Child Pool Alarms and you should see quite a few. They make some that attach to the child and some that watch the pool. Choose the one that seems right to you.
5. Ask if the adults that will be supervising know how to swim and know child CPR.
   1. Knowing how to swim seems like a no brainer, but there are still people out there that have problems with it. If a child is at the bottom of a pool, you better make sure an adult there will be able to swim under to save them. Giving CPR to a child is different than giving it to an adult. Specifically ask about WHAT TYPE of CPR people know. Here is a link to a download of  the most current Red Cross CPR Guide for children.