Mad about Swimming Pools
I just read an artcile of a new website which really made me sit back and wonder what is happening to the world.
Apparently swimming pool floats used widely by many people to learn to swim have now been branded a health and safety risk as they have potential to spread disease and infection.
Despite a parent point out that its surely more risky for a child to drown from lack of bouyancy and rather it were better to keep them people have still insisted they be banned.
It makes you wonder just how crazy this world is going to get with legislation on every action we take.
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 3:22 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Yes, you are right - the arm floats for young children are an acceptable aid in teaching children to swim as well as providing an additional layer of protection during that time inwhich a child is in the process of learning to swim.
Tips in their use:
When working with your child or a student wearing the arms floats encourage them to get their legs out behind them and get in a stretched out on-the-tummy position and kick…and move along that way versus being in the ‘riding-a-bicycle’ position. And it time reduce the amount of air in the floats and eventually remove them as the child becomes able to move more safely under their own power.
As to safety - non-swimming children should be supervised when in or near water and kept within arms reach. Arms floats do provide some additional safety when non-swimming children are around water and should be used - not in place of supervision but in addition to it. There is no drowning prevention precaution that is fool-proof - caregivers do fail to watch as close as they should, fence gates to pools do get left unlatched, alarms do fail, people do fail in remembering exactly how to do CPR, becoming a strong swimmer takes time, and a child’s judgement as to safety around water is just that - a child’s judgement.
Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater and don’t ban arm floats. - Maybe the issues are really (1) their proper use and (2) the use of government intervention in the matter - both warranting separate discussion
Arm floats use properly and with care can help children learn to swim and they give an extra measure of safety when coupled with a full range of available drowning prevention strategies.
Steve Graves
President
World Aquatic Babies & Children Network
St Petersburg, Florida USA
WABC teachers conference in Brighton Oct. 7-9, 2009