Guest Article: Water Safety Smarts!

Many of us will be heading off on vacation this summer, and a lot of those vacations will involve water. Whether your vacation takes you to the ocean, a lake, a river, a waterpark, or a hotel pool, you need to be smart about water safety. I've asked a water safety expert to give us a few pointers to keep our kids safe around the water this summer. Paul Fawcett is an Instructor and Coordinator of the Aquatic Minor Program at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He is also an officer in the United States Coast Guard Reserve.

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If you're going on vacation this summer, or even if you're not, chances are you'll be near water. Visting the local pool, boating at the lake, swimming in the neighbor's pool or thrill seeking at a water park, Americans love to be around the water. Don't let your fun turn into tragedy; take a few basic precautions to protect your child around the water.

The most basic rule of water safety is "never swim alone." This goes double for children, which means never leave your child unattended around the water. It doesn't matter how good a swimmer your child is, how well behaved they are, or how short a time you'll be gone. Children are drawn to water and can drown in as little as 10 seconds, in as little as a half inch depth of water. Don't rely on lifeguards to watch your child. Lifeguards get distracted, bored, overwhelmed by large crowds, or just plain miss drownings. Remember, the average age of a pool lifeguard is 17 years old.

Don't rely on flotation devices to keep your child safe. Inflatable devices can deflate, leaving the child in trouble in water over their head. They can also create a false sense of security in the child, making them think they can swim in deep water when they can't.

If you visit the beach, special precautions need to be observed. Be sure to put large amounts of high sun protection factor sun screen on your child, and reapply often. At best a sun burn can make a child ill; in extreme cases death can result. Before you swim be sure to talk to the lifeguard on duty. Ask about water depths, tides, currents, undertows and where the guarded areas are. If your area isn't guarded remember that hazards may exist that you aren't aware of. Flotation devices are absolutely a bad idea in open water. Even if the device doesn't deflate, a rip tide or current may catch the device, with children on board, and sweep them down stream or off shore.

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