As we are fast approaching the festive season families tend to visit the beach, dams, lakes, public pools etc. As well as the hot days we are experiencing are yet to worsen leaving many wanting to cool down, and your first thought is ‘ahhh a nice swim will fix this’.
Although it’s not always well-publicised, drowning is one of the leading causes of death from unintentional injury. Fortunately, by observing basic water safety standards, many tragic situations that can lead to drowning can be completely avoided.
People, and parents, need to be more informed of the necessary safety measures that should be taken when it comes to adults and children in water features of all sorts. Whether you’re swimming on your own, supervising others, or making your pool safe for your family, you can’t afford not to have the knowledge below:
Water safety tips:
• There is no such thing as “drown proofing” or “safety proofing” children. Being a skilled swimmer does not mean a child (or adult) cannot drown.
Learning about water safety at swim lessons does not mean that they will not do something unsafe the very same day. If a child is missing check any water features first- baths, ponds, pools
• Keep pools and ponds clean – green and muddy means a child can’t be seen
• Designated Water Watcher. At family gatherings assign one person every 15 or 30 minutes to be the “lifeguard” with the sole purpose of watching the water. When everyone is together and chatting, no-one’s focus is on the pool.
• Never leave water in buckets and baths that children could fall into. It takes just a few inches of water for a child to drown. Understand that young children can drown in very shallow water. Babies and toddlers can drown in as little as one inch of water. Tragically, not all parents and caretakers are aware of this.
• Do a CPR course. If children are left in the care of a domestic worker – she should also have CPR and know some basic rescue skills. If possible send her for swimming lessons too.
• Have a golden rule – anywhere and everywhere – no-one, including adults, ever swims alone. Pick swimming sites with lifeguards. The safest choice when selecting swimming sites are ones that have certified life guards on-duty. Lifeguards are your greatest friends of all when you’re swimming — the presence of lifeguards at a swimming site has been shown to have a serious, proven effect on drowning prevention. However, lifeguards should be treated like a fire extinguisher – critical if needed, but one should do everything possible to avoid having to use one. Take all safety measures you would take even if the lifeguard was not there.
• Learn basic swimming skills.
For obvious reasons, knowing how to swim can greatly reduce your risk of drowning.
• Swimmers can still drown. Just being able to swim does not mean you are immune from drowning. This statement is not to discourage anyone from learning to swim – just that over-confidence can be every bit as dangerous as an inability to swim at all.
If you feel yourself start to lose control, tread water or float. Most people’s natural reaction to the sensation of beginning to drown is to fight as hard as they can to keep their head high above the water.
This is one of the worst things to do when you’re drowning, it can quickly use up your energy reserves, tire you out, and actually make it harder to signal for help. Usually, it’s a much better idea to tread water or use a floating technique to conserve energy so that you can make a try for the shore or signal for help. To tread water, turn yourself upright in the water and make an in-and-out sweeping motion with your arms to stabilise your upper body.
As you do this, make an easy, bicycle-like kicking motion to keep yourself afloat. If you’re completely out of energy, using a survival float can allow you to rest in the water. Turn prone (face-down) and spread your limbs out wide, using only minimal movements to keep yourself afloat. Lift your head when you need to breathe. Keep in mind that you only need to keep your mouth a little out of the water to be able to breathe.
Make your pool inaccessible. Putting physical barriers between your children and your pool can often be enough to keep them out of it when you’re not there to supervise them. Never let children swim unsupervised. While it’s a bad idea for anyone to swim alone, for children, it should be a hard and fast rule. Never let children swim without adult supervision, no matter whether they’re at the beach, in your household pool, in a public pool, or at a friend’s house. Be aware that drowning is often a silent phenomenon. Drowning often doesn’t occur the way it appears in movies, as a loud, violent, chaotic struggle to stay above water.
In fact, someone who’s in the process of drowning may be unable to get their head above the water long enough to even call for help. Because of this, there usually won’t be any sort of warning sounds that a drowning is occurring. A person may even drown without the people next to them knowing that anything is wrong until it’s too late. For this reason, it’s extremely important for the water monitor not to let their visual attention wander from the swimmers they’re supposed to be watching.
Know the following warning signs of silent drowning:
• Stiff, upright body with arms pushing down against the water (not waving or signalling for help). The inability for the drowning person to speak (they are focusing on breathing). Periods of intense struggling on the surface followed by submerging underwater with breath held.
• The inability for the drowning person to keep their mouth above the water consistently.
