05/03/2023
Great reminder; Skills before thrills.
Warmer weather is coming once again and with it come conversations from parents, discussing which flotation devices will be best to purchase for their kids when they go to the pool this year.
We would like to offer our opinionā¦
Their own bodies.
That is the very best flotation device you can give your child.
Every other flotation device will carry the risk of teaching you and your child a false sense of security around the water.
This could potentially make you less cautious than you need to be, because you feel safe with your child in the device, and it can make young children believe that floating just naturally happens when they go into the water. This makes mobile children more likely to go to the water on impulse, but without having any skill to save themselves if they were ever to fall into it alone and without their device on.
Don't believe me? Then believe the rest of the water safety experts that also recommend against the use of flotation devices (with the exception of Coast Guard approved life jackets and those should be used ONLY in open water such as oceans, lakes and rivers, where water is uncontrolled and even more dangerous because of it).
Don't trust them? Then trust the American Academy of Pediatrics' official statement on the use of flotation devices, cautioning against their use.
The CDC also cautions against the "use of any air filled or foam toys, such as water wings, noodles, inner tubes, arm bands, inflatable rings, rafts and puddle jumpers".
Donāt want to listen to the professionals? Then listen to the hundreds of parents who used these devices faithfully with their children, like you, thinking they were doing the best thing for them. Listen to them, because their babies went to the water without their devices. They drowned. They died.
Or how about the kids who were saved just in time, who later told their parents that they either thought they still had their device on when they went back to the water, or thought they could swim without it, because they could āswimā with it on.
The bottom line is, as much as parents want to find a product that will work, without danger of failing or teaching bad habits, both of which could lead to drowning, there are just no short cuts to the issue of children and water safety.
No device will ever be as safe for your child as one-on-one touch supervision with you, in and around the water, and survival swim lessons.
A child's own body is their very best floatation device and the only one they will be able to take with them, wherever they go.