Phones and water don’t mix. Long says a child can drown in the time it takes to send a text. “I’m not shaming anyone—phones are designed to capture our attention,” she says. “The rule in my house: phone goes away during bath time, pool time, and any time a car is moving in the driveway. Not ‘checked less’ away.”
Be mindful of children during transition periods. Long calls these “shoulder” moments, when you’re just arriving or leaving a pool or beach, and in the distraction of getting settled or getting ready to leave, something unexpected can happen. According to the Red Cross, nearly 7 out of 10 children who drown in pools were never expected to be in the water at all. “They wandered out after everyone had finished swimming, or before anyone had started,” Long says. “A floating pool toy is the single most common reason a child sneaks back in alone.”
Don’t rely on a floatie. Parents might think responsibility around water means ensuring their young child has a floatie or puddle jumper on at all times. But Long warns these aren’t all the same. “Swimmies, water wings, and inflatables are toys, not life jackets. They actually teach the wrong swim posture—vertical, head up—which is a sinking position the moment they come off, and they give the child a very false confidence about water,” she says. “The CDC explicitly says: do not rely on air-filled or foam toys.”
Layered water safety precautions save lives. The most proactive approach to water safety is what Long calls a “layered model”—not relying on just one water safety measure, but several, layered precautions. “There is no single intervention that prevents drowning. It’s the layers that save lives.” These layers can include swim lessons. “Formal swim lessons reduce drowning risk in 1- to 4-year-olds by 88 percent. The goal isn’t Olympic strokes—it’s self-rescue: roll onto the back, float, get to the wall,” she says. Another layer is putting a four-sided fence around water, which reduces drowning risk by 83 percent, she shares. Perhaps the simplest water safety tip: Choose brightly colored swimsuits for better child visibility in the water.
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