Some children love water, and if you have a pool or enjoy swimming, you may want to share this joy with your infant. So grab sunglasses, a sun hat and sunscreen for your baby and head for the water. Protect your child from drowning or injury by doing all you can to make the pool a safe place for your infant.
Learn CPR
Be prepared by learning infant and child CPR. You can take a course in these life-saving techniques from a local branch of the Red Cross or a YMCA. You hope you will never need to use what you learn, but fast action in the event of an accident could save a child's life. Keep a phone near the pool to summon emergency help.
Fence It Off
The United States Consumer Products Safety Commission recommends you erect a fence at least 4 feet high. The fence needs to cover all four sides of your pool, and you should have a gate that closes and latches automatically, with a latch that small children can't reach.
Life Preserver
Buy a Coast Guard approved life preserver designed for an infant and use it at all times in the pool. Infant life preservers support your child's head to keep it out of the water. Make sure that the life preserver is sized to fit comfortably but snugly around your child, and buy a new one when your child outgrows the first one. Foam or inflatable toys aren't a substitute for a proper flotation device.
Keep It Clean
Infants should wear swim diapers in the water. Change your child regularly and wash its bottom thorough before you return to the pool. This helps keep dangerous bacteria out of the water.
Touch Control
Children can drown while your back is turned for only a moment, so you should always stay with your child in the water. Kids Health recommends you exercise "touch control," which means you should be close enough to touch your infant or toddler at all times in the water.
