With the Summer holidays fast approaching, our thoughts are turned to sandy beaches, secluded water spots, taking a refreshing dip in the lake, lounging by the pool or possibly even dusting off the inflatable kids pool for the garden. The more grown up kids may go off exploring by themselves or find themselves at the hotel pool or at the beach with friends in an unsupervised fashion. But how prepared are you and your children for this new (and often once yearly) proximity to relatively deep water? How water safe are you? Do you know the simple deep water survival techniques such as floating and treading water? Did you know that most drownings don’t even occur in deep water? A child can drown in as little as an inch of water and in less time than it takes to answer the telephone.

 

It certainly wouldn’t be a bad idea to visit your local swimming school prior to the vacations just to brush up on your kids’ swimming technique and general water confidence. There are a range of Swim schools that have a range of swimming courses for kids that will aid confidence in water, improve on swimming fitness and provide familiarity with techniques such as diving, swimming using a snorkel, swimming with waves or a tide machine.   Small Foot run an intensive summer preparation course which is personalised to the child and which targets topics such as security in and around water, the most important bathing rules, bodies of water to avoid, the dangers of hidden currents, and various rescue aids. Children are taught skills to ensure that they can save themselves in the event they encounter a problem in the water. Rather than trying to swim to the edge of the pool, they’ll focus on floating and staying calm.

Everyone looks forward to getting away, letting our hair down and giving the children the freedom to explore and to splash about in the water. But parents tend to relax and gain a false sense of security for children in a holiday setting, when in fact they should be more attentive than usual. So what are the do’s and don’ts?

It is not always easy as a parent to keep an eye on children at all times. Especially as so much can happen in a matter of seconds. Supervising adults or older siblings should be in arms reach of children under 5 so that if the child slips underwater, they can be pulled to safety immediately, and this adult must be able to swim. Toys and inflatables are not life jackets and are often unstable and as such can be a hazard.  If your children are going off by themselves to swim or to explore,they should always go in a group of at least two  people. They should test the depth of natural bodies of water before swimming too far or before diving. They should be careful of beaches with strong waves or a large high tide/low tide difference, follow the safety notices of pools and beaches.