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Summer Pool Safety: Staying cool and staying safe!
Summary:
With the summer heat, many people turn to swimming pools to stay cool. Follow these safety tips to keep your family safe this summer.
Each summer, SickKids sees an increase in the number of water-related injuries as temperatures rise. Trying to stay cool during heat waves drives many children and families to partake in water-based activities and backyard pools. While pools are a great way to cool down and stay active in the summer heat, over 48 per cent of water-related injuries treated at SickKids occur in swimming pools.
Common injuries that occur in pools include drownings, head and neck injuries from diving or jumping into the pool and slips/falls on the pool deck. These three types of injuries alone resulted in 58 per cent of water-injury related hospital admissions from SickKids' ED from 2019 to 2023.
Staying safe in and around pools includes monitoring children’s behaviour, modifying the environment and always providing adequate supervision. These actions can work to prevent serious and potentially life-threatening injuries this summer.
Taking a few minutes to review pool safety rules with your children before they swim can help to remind them of the importance of swimming safely this summer!
Promoting water safety and talking to your children about their behaviour starts before entering the pool area, this includes:
- Providing them with the opportunity to learn to swim, such as in swimming lessons, when they are ready.
- Knowing their abilities in the water and setting boundaries for which areas of the pool they can safely enter.
- Teaching them the importance of walking on the pool deck to prevent slips and falls.
For backyard pools, creating a safe environment can also prevent injuries, such as:
- Installing pool fences and pool nets with self-latching gates, and not allowing children to play in the pool area unsupervised.
- Ensuring pool drains are functional, in good working condition and have anti-suction and entrapment covers.
Supervision is always required when children are swimming. Even in pools with lifeguards, drowning can occur quickly and quietly. It is best to:
- Have a dedicated pool supervisor when there are multiple adults present to ensure adults are not distracted by each other.
- Keep young children within arm’s reach when in or around the pool.
- Do not rely on pool toys such as pool noodles, floaties or water wings to keep your child safe. These are toys and not safety devices.
Interested in learning more? Additional pool safety tips can be found on AboutKidsHealth: