With summer months ahead and people buying pools for their backyard or cleaning and preparing their swimming pools for the season its time to take a close look at pool safely in the backyard oasis area.
photo credit: Indiewench

Unfortunately thousands of children die each year from drowning and many of these deaths occur at residential swimming pools. When it comes to pool safely many adults are misinformed about their pool. They feel that as long as there is safely equipment and devices at the pool site their children are safe.

Pool safety devices are important but common sense and knowing how to use your equipment is equally important. And having a plan and staying calm in an emergency will help you and your family.

Pool accessories that aid in pool safety are arm floats, or baby floats and lifejackets. These are popular accessories that can also be considered lifesaving devices. Arm floats are perfect for children of any age. Once they are inflated, they slip onto a child’s arm and will help keep them afloat. But care and observation of use must be used at all times.
photo credit: plasticrevolver

A baby float is a great way for infants and lightweight children to enjoy the water. They have leg holes and squared shapes that add stability and will keep a small child above water. As with any water activity, but particularly with babies, remember the waterproof suntan lotion.

Lifejackets are most commonly used and associated with boating, but you can purchase smaller lifejackets that are ideal for swimming pools. These are idea for pool games where splashing and activity can be distractive to where the children are located in the pool.

Pool toys add to fun and activity to backyard pools.  Pool toys can include swim rings, beach balls, and other small toys. They are relatively cheap in price, sometimes only a dollar. Other swim toys can be expensive purchases, such as volleyball nets and basketball hoops.

When your children are playing a water games, it is very important that you keep a close eye on them. These games often become very competitive which adds to noise and confusion in a pool. These situations can become dangerous or deadly in a pool. Careful observation and having and enforcing rules will help keep active games safe.

Pool fixtures such as pool slides or deep end diving boards are also toys.  But since they are usually securely fastened to the pool or the side of the pool, they are called a fixture.  It is very important that you pay extremely close attention to anyone using slides or the diving board. Young children think these items look fun and often try to use these without supervision and if the child cannot swim this may lead to a tragedy. You may also want to make sure that divers are jumping a safe distance away from the pool’s side and that people are clear of the jumping area.

There are many considerations in pool safety and each family will have different concerns. But keeping an eye on the children in the pool and backyard pool area and making sure that all pool toys and accessories are in the proper working order will help keep your backyard oasis paradise a fun and safe place to relax and enjoy the summer.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 29th, 2009 at 9:47 am and is filed under backyard pools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.