Why Can't I Just Put My Child in Flotation?

There are many different types of flotation devices for children ranging from inflatable arm bands to puddle jumpers to inflatable seats.

Flotation devices are deceptive and not as safe as the general public realizes:

• They promote poor posture while in the water because the child is vertical instead of horizontal.

• They prevent a child from getting their face wet which inevitably makes the child afraid of having water on their face and can induce panic if their face does get wet.

• Flotation devices promote poor kicking because children end up kicking their feet like an egg beater instead of properly kicking them up and down.

• From what we know about child development and psychology, they cannot separate themselves from the flotation devices which means that they actually believe they are swimming, which they aren't. When they exit the pool and the flotation is removed, they don't realize that it's off so they may jump in the pool believing they can keep swimming. This is highly dangerous and can obviously result in a drowning.

• If not supervised, an active baby can flip their inflatable seat over to be submerged in the water. They would be unable to flip themselves back into an upright position and unfortunately would end up drowning.

So what can you do to best protect your child??

There are many ways you can protect your child when around water:

• Locked pool gates, pool gate alarms, removing the ladder from an above ground pool

• Maintaining undistracted supervision shifts by assigning a parent to watch ONLY the children for a certain amount of time: 20 minutes with NO phones, NO distractions, etc. This means that if someone wants to have a conversation with you, you respectfully tell them you can talk when your shift is over. It only takes one turn of the head for an accident to happen.

**The BEST way you can protect your child in the water is to equip them to save themselves!**

This is what our swim program does, because no matter what measures are taken, in the blink of an eye children can get into anything! They are smarter than we tend to give them credit for.

We teach your children the life-saving skills they need to save themselves if they should ever have an accident in the water.

We GUARANTEE that your child will learn the skills appropriate to their age in one 4 or 6 week session.

You can find out more about our guarantee by clicking here!

No matter what methods you choose to protect your child, please remember that NO child should ever be considered drown-proof or watersafe!

Every child still needs to be supervised whether or not they can swim or are kept in flotation.

We are still accepting new students and plan to start lessons as early as Monday, May 19th! You can click here to visit our Registration & Schedule page to find out how to get started!

We look forward to meeting you and giving your child the skills they need to not only survive in the water, but thrive with a healthy love and respect of the water!

#flotationdangers #infantaquatics #leland #swimlesson