Keep your children safe while playing in swimming pools.

March 21, 2012 - PRLog -- Did you know that there are approximately 400 residential swimming pool drownings every year in the US and Canada?  Beyond that, there are approximately 3,000 additional close calls every year, as well.  That makes drowning the second leading cause of accidental death among children ages 14 and under, and the leading cause of accidental death of children 4 and under. What can we do to make sure such accidents are avoided?  Here are some helpful hints to get started:
1.  Lock ladders providing access to above ground pools when not in use.  
2.  Consider installing a 4 foot high fence around the perimeter of an in ground pool with a self-latching gate.  Child safety advocate, Michael Pouls, explains how even the best laid plans can go wrong:  “Children can often become single-minded while playing, so even if your child knows that he should not play around the pool, if a ball he is playing with rolls close to the pool, for example, he may very well run after it, and accidentally fall into the pool.”
3.  Make sure all pool drains have anti-entrapment drain covers.
4.  Both children and adults should learn how to swim, and no one should ever swim alone.  Michael Pouls suggests that, “All adults should learn adult and infant CPR so that should an incident occur, they are prepared to take appropriate action.”
5.  Teach children never to play in or around a swimming pool without active adult supervision.  Michael Pouls explains that active supervision means, “the supervising adult does not allow him or herself to get distracted by other people, telephone calls, or anything else that might compromise their attention.”
6.  Children who are not yet proficient swimmers should wear a life jacket while playing in the pool.
By using these best practices, you will go a long way toward keeping your children safe in and around pools!  For more child safety tips, please visit michaelpouls.info.