Health Tip

Healthy Swimming

Here are some tips that promote healthy swimming:

• Don’t swim when you have diarrhea, especially children in diapers. You can spread germs into the water and make other people sick.
• Don’t swallow the pool water. Try your best to avoid even having water get in your mouth.
• Wash your hands with soap and water after using the toilet or after changing diapers. You can protect others by remembering that germs on your body end up in the water.
• Take your kids on bathroom breaks often. Waiting to hear “I have to go” may mean that it’s too late.
• Change diapers in a bathroom and not at poolside. Germs can spread to surfaces and objects in and around the pool and spread disease.
• Wash your child thoroughly (especially their bottoms) with soap and water before swimming. We all have invisible amounts of fecal matter on our bottoms that end up in the pool.
• Some other water safety tips include:
• Remember to keep an eye on your children at all times. Kids can drown in seconds and in silence.
• Protect your child and yourself against sunburn by using a sunscreen with at least SPF 15 and both UVA and UVB protection. Be sure to reapply it after swimming. Even a few serious sunburns can increase one’s risk of getting skin cancer.
• Don’t use air-filled swimming aids (such as “water wings”) with children in place of life jackets or life preservers.