Swimming Lesson Saftey Tips from Wallen Swim

Every parent wants to keep their kids safe. It might be tempting to keep your kid from drowning by deciding that they will never go around water in their life, but this is really not practical or viable. At some point your child will be around water; do you want them to know what to do to save themselves, or do you want them to panic because they don’t know what to do? Here are some of the best things you can do to keep your child safe and prevent the chance of drowning.

Swimming lessons

Enroll your child in swimming lessons at the Roseville location or El Dorado Hills location starting at 6 months of age. Continue the lessons year-round. Your child will be comfortable in the water and will be prepared to keep themselves safe.

Don’t let your child swim with floaties

Water wings, floaties, flap wings … whatever you want to call them, are not always a good idea. They teach kids that it is safe to be in the water and that they will just float, but without teaching them the actual skills to float. Kids who swim with floaties get an inaccurate feeling of security about the water and are much more likely to jump into the water without their floaties, at which point they may not know what to do.

Instead, we highly recommend teaching kids to swim without floaties from the very beginning. They will experience their face going in the water, and they will learn how to keep themselves afloat as they gain more confidence in the water. They will gain a healthy respect for the water while at the same time, gain essential water safety skills.

Put barriers around your pool

Install a pool fence or other barriers around your pool to keep kids from wandering into it while you aren’t out there.

Create a swimming ritual

Put on a swim diaper, put on a swimming suit, rinse off in the shower, put on water shoes, put the dog in the kennel … whatever you need to do to be ready to swim, make a ritual out of it. The longer the ritual, the better. Then, if your child suddenly decides to jump in the pool without asking, they will start doing the ritual first. It’s a lot easier to intervene because you noticed the child putting the dog in the kennel than to stop a child from diving in who is already standing on the side of the pool.

Learn CPR

Every parent should know CPR, but many don’t. Take a CPR class. It is well worth the investment to know that you can save your child’s life if the worst does happen.