After spending a few days watching our 2-year-old grandson, our main goal wasn’t to have fun or to explore interesting places (although those were on the agenda). Nope; it was to keep him out of an emergency room, returned to his parents in basically the same way we got him, plus a few bug bites and a scraped knee.
During his visit, he splashed around in a small backyard pool with one of us at his side at all times. We had no intention of taking him to anything bigger or deeper during his brief time with us.
But plenty of grandparents take over childcare when school is out, and pool or lake time is part of the summer scene. In a recent newsletter from Cleveland Clinic, doctor Purva Grover offers a few timely reminders for folks as swimming season gets underway.
“Always make sure that your children, if they are young swimmers or early swimmers, have an adult in arms-length by them, in the pool. If they are good swimmers and older swimmers and don’t need that kind of help, they still need one designated person watching them at all given times,” advises Purva Grover, M.D., emergency medicine physician for Cleveland Clinic Children’s.
Dr. Grover says one of the reasons she recommends having one designated adult per child is because lifeguards are busy watching multiple people, so it could be easy for them to miss something.
She also notes that drownings aren’t as dramatic as some might think. A child could quickly slip under the water without anyone noticing.
Dr. Grover says this same advice applies at private pools, as well. An accident can happen anywhere, at any time.
In busy pools, she recommends having kids dress in bright-colored swimsuits so they stand out. And if they use flotation devices, make sure they are Coast Guard- approved.
Finally, if you don’t know how to perform CPR, make sure to learn.
“We need to make sure that, if a submersion or a drowning happens and there is a terrible accident, that there is somebody who can start CPR right away. CPR on site has shown to be, over the years, proven scientifically to have a much better outcome when these kids come to the emergency department than kids who did not receive CPR at site, or good adequate CPR,” says Dr. Grover.
She said taking frequent breaks while swimming is also important, as is staying hydrated and regularly applying sunscreen.
