DeAndrea Thompson, Cullman ISR

06/19/2026

Let’s have a heart-to-heart about puddle jumpers and life jackets in the pool.

I know you’re using these devices because they’ve been marketed as safe. Some puddle jumpers are even approved by the U.S. Coast Guard. What’s important to understand is that the Coast Guard does not approve these devices for swimming pools or as swim-learning aids.

When properly fitted and used correctly, personal flotation devices can be life-saving. Children should absolutely wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket around open water—on a boat, fishing from a dock, or near lakes and rivers.

But swimming at the pool is different.

The pool is where children should be learning how their bodies move in the water and developing real swimming and survival skills. Research shows many childhood drownings happen outside of swim time after a child has been regularly using flotation devices.

There are many reasons I don’t recommend puddle jumpers in the pool, but here are a few:

• They interfere with a child’s natural understanding of buoyancy.
• They teach a vertical position to get air instead of a safe, horizontal swimming posture.
• They can create a false sense of security for both children and parents.
• The National Drowning Prevention Alliance warns that flotation devices can hinder proper swim mechanics and mask a child’s lack of true water competency.

Potty training requires consistency. Learning to read requires practice. Most life skills take time, effort, and repetition.

Swimming is no different.

In a world surrounded by water, our children deserve the opportunity to learn real skills that could one day save their lives. Get in the water with them. Teach them. Enroll them with a qualified instructor. Practice regularly.

And if you’re outnumbered by little ones and feel like puddle jumpers are the only way to manage a pool day, I say this with love:

Skip the pool and head to the splash pad instead.

06/13/2026

I’ve seen far too many drowning stories in the last few weeks, so here’s your reminder: the best defense against childhood drowning is LAYERS of protection.

Imagine you’re 2 years old. You remember your favorite red ball is outside. Mom is distracted for just a moment folding laundry. You open the door you’ve recently learned to unlock and head to the backyard.

You spot your ball floating near the pool’s edge. It seems easy to grab. After all, you were “swimming” yesterday.

You lean over. You fall in.

What happens next depends on how you’ve been taught to interact with the water. Do you float, swim to the edge, or assume the vertical position that has always worked while in a flotation device?

✅ Supervision
✅ Door alarms
✅ Four-sided pool fencing with self-latching gate
✅ Self-rescue skills
✅ CPR certified

No single layer is perfect. Parents get distracted. Gates get left open. Alarms get turned off.

The goal is that when one layer fails, another is there to protect your child.

Take a few minutes today to look at your home through your child’s eyes. Water is everywhere, and you don’t need a backyard pool to need a water safety plan.

One moment. One distraction. One layer isn’t enough.

05/30/2026

05/29/2026

my ISR friend is out here educating the world 💙

“It’s really important to remember that drowning is quick and it’s silent.”

05/26/2026

These are staggering statistics.

Why do so many more drownings happen to kids under 5 than to any other age group?

We don’t have definitive answers. But what we do know is that most kids this age do not know how to save themselves in a water emergency-yet most are capable of learning how to do so.

What we do know is that most very young kids THINK they know how to swim, when they really don’t. This is especially true if they have been dependent on flotation devices and haven’t really experienced what their bodies can and can’t do in the water without the device on.

What we know is that many children love the water and for various reasons, will sneak back to it during non-swim times, when they aren’t expected to be near the water, and that is when they drown. 69% of young child drownings happen this way.

How can we change this?

Stop using floatation devices at the pool with the kids. Get in with them and help them see what their own bodies can and can’t do in the water instead.

Treat swim time like work time for you. Your job is to keep complete focus on the children at all times. Save your own relaxation for times you can be at the pool without the children.

Be mindful that most drownings happen in the minutes or hours AFTER swim time is over. Keep close attention on the kids during those times.

Help your kids learn to be able to survive a water emergency-back floating (so they can breathe and wait for help) and finding and learning to propel through the water, get to exits and get out of the water.

Put as many barriers as possible between the kids and the water so that they physically can’t get back to it after swim time is over.

Learn CPR, in case the worst case actually does happen.