05/06/2025
There are NO shortcuts in drowning prevention and water safety!
The single most common question we get when discussing the dangers of using flotation with young ones all the time in pools is, “ Well, what device will be safe for my child to use in the pool then?”
The answer is none. No matter what new device comes along and promises to save our kids, we have to stop reaching for easy solutions to the problem of drowning. The easy solutions are short cuts and there are no effective short cuts when it comes to keeping kids safer around water.
Flotation devices will all teach the same thing when used in pools. They will all teach them the vertical, drowning position in the water and they will all create a false reality that the child knows how to swim when they really don’t. That will make it more likely that your child will try to go back to water if they find a chance to do it without their device on, when you don’t know they are doing it. They simply believe they can swim. They don’t see that the device-any device-is what keeps them floating. They believe they are doing it themselves.
If you want your kids to not believe this, you will have to do the hard thing. You will have to help them understand what their own body can and cannot do in the water, so that they develop a healthy respect for it. They have to experience it without attached flotation.
You will need to teach them ways to survive if they find themselves in the water without you. They need to know how to reorient their own body from a fall into the water and to then get into a float on their back. They need to know where the exits to the pool are, how to get to them and how to use them to get out of the water.
If they can’t swim yet, they need you, in the water with them, helping them learn to navigate it.
You do not need to try the next new device to come on the market.
Your child doesn’t need a device.
Your child needs to learn skills in the water.
