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Newsroom Chapter Blog
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May
22
5/22/2009 8:37 AM
Even though I work with pools year-round – teaching classes, inspecting facilities, training lifeguards, etc. – this is the time of year when everyone says, “Wow – I bet you sure are busy now that summer is almost here!”
Even though our Aquatics team is busy throughout the year, it’s true that there is an increased sense of energy from Memorial Day to Labor Day. That’s when most public pools open their gates, and kids around St. Louis flock to the water slides, diving boards and deep ends. And since May is Water Safety Month, I thought it might be a good time to blog about when parents should teach their kids to swim.
The Red Cross offers learn-to-swim classes for kids of all ages, but the youngest you can enroll is 6 months of age. That might seem a little too young to really learn anything, but it is a good idea to get kids acclimated to the water early. Statistics (from the CDC) show that the place where drowning is most likely to occur changes with age:
- Children under 1 year most often drown in bath tubs, buckets or toilets.
- Children ages 1 to 4 years most often drown in home pools.
- Older children most often drown in natural water settings, like lakes, rivers, or the ocean.
That means, by the time your child is 1 year old, the biggest risk of drowning is at a neighborhood pool, many of which, do not have trained lifeguards on duty.
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Genelle Brakefield and her son, Cooper
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Take Genelle Brakefield – she enrolled her son, Cooper, in Red Cross learn-to-swim classes. He’s 10 months old, and loved being in the water with his mom and dad. Genelle says she wanted to get him enrolled early, because she remembers swimming at her subdivision pool by the age of 2.
Of course, enrolling your infant or toddler in swimming lessons means you as a parent need to be actively involved, like Genelle. But that’s good – because you should always be actively involved whenever your child is around the water.
And even though it’s not really any busier this time of year, the Red Cross Aquatics team will be posting more to the blog throughout the summer pool season. Our thanks to Genelle for sending these cute pictures of Cooper!
Laurie Roberts is the Safety Outreach Specialist for the St. Louis Area Chapter.
Genelle Brakefield is part of a family-owned business, Ekon Benefits, that helps sponsor the Red Cross Lifeguard Challenge each year.
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2 comment(s) so far...
NIMS
That's great, I never thought about Parents, Kids & Pools like that before.
By NIMS on
9/8/2009 3:07 AM
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Re: Laurie Roberts – Parents, Kids & Pools
Wow, I never knew that Laurie Roberts – Parents, Kids & Pools. That's pretty interesting...
By NIMS on
9/16/2009 5:54 AM
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