Summer means more time for families to spend in and around the water. During this time, it is common to have a pool party, beach day, or boat ride.

Increases as temperatures rise Safety in the water It’s important for everyone, but especially for parents of young children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suffocation is the second leading cause of death in the United States for children ages 1 to 4.

In addition to learning about choking prevention (read more about this below), there are little-known factors your child should consider when swimming this summer: the color of their swimsuit.

Live Solutions The company, which specializes in water safety, conducted an informal survey in 2020 to test how different colored swimsuits stand out in open-bottom pools, dark-bottom pools and lakes.

As for the pool, we checked out how the costumes looked underwater (top), and again surface-agitated (bottom) from the perspective of a man standing on the pool deck.

For the lake, we tested multi-colored swimsuits on the water surface (top), coastal map (middle), and elevated map (bottom) to simulate the situation when the parents are standing. By boat or dock. The depth of the water was only 18 inches.

“We are investigating drowning cases and we know that visibility is important in identifying drowning cases. Says Natalie Livingstone, co-founder of Alive Solutions. “As rescuers and water experts, we know that there are certain factors that can make it easier or more difficult to see someone in the water.”

“Knowing what our background was, we started looking at children’s swimwear and realized that many parents chose very attractive and fashionable swimwear, but the children did. It may have disappeared into the water,” she said.

Neon colors that provide contrast work best in both pools and lakes. In the open-bottom pool, neon pink and neon orange were the most prominent, and white and light blue suits were the least. Dark colors like purple and black look great, but are not recommended as they can be mistaken for dirt, leaves, or shadows.

Neon Orange, Neon Green and Neon Yellow were the most prominent in dark lakes and underwater basins. It is worth noting what Neon Pink did Nope. It works well in a lake setting. White was visible in this environment, but it is not recommended as it is easily confused with the reflection of light on the surface of the water.

“The goal was to show how to make others more noticeable and how difficult it is to see water. It’s not like seeing air,” Livingstone said. “Overall, neon is the leader in all categories.”

It is also worth noting that in a lake environment, at a depth of 2 feet, the visibility of all colors tested dropped to zero. This is a good indication of the importance of wearing a lifejacket in an open water environment as it traps swimmers on the surface of the water. (Note: Unlike life jackets, water wings, tubing, baby wraps, and other inflatable Nope. They are considered safety devices. )

Children under the age of 5 must also wear a life jacket in the pool unless they are protected by “tactile surveillance”. In other words, parents are “always out of reach of children.” A national alliance to prevent drowning.

Without other safety measures, the color of your baby’s swimsuit is of little importance.

Drowning experts from former Coast Guard swimmers at Mario Vuitton say it’s not a bad idea to consider a bathing suit color for the pool, and avoiding white and blue is a wise decision. But it doesn’t even say that neon-colored costumes are “safer.”

“If the color of the suit is reflected, the strangulation is probably already done. It’s nice to see the baby lying on the floor, but even more so than not putting the baby on the floor to begin with. It’s bad,” Vuitton said.

“Children in light blue swimsuits who have taken swim lessons and are swimming in a protected pool are safer than children in neon yellow swimsuits who have not taken swim lessons in the pools they protect. A savior who never rests.”

In fact, your child can take swimming lessons at a young age, which reduces the risk of suffocation. Make sure you understand your child’s swimming ability and her own skill level.

However, the attention of the American Academy of Pediatrics “Even advanced swimming skills do not always prevent drowning” and “Swimming lessons should only be considered in the context of multilayer protection.”

Careful, unmanned adult supervision is absolutely necessary whenever a child is in or near the water. Choking happens very quickly, sometimes within a few seconds, so it can be dangerous to quickly check your cell phone or even eat a snack from a distance.

“Look at the kids underwater. They’re always underwater,” says Vuitton. She also advises adults to watch the lifeguard for about 15 minutes to determine how much attention the spotter is paying.

It’s also a good idea to play the role of an adult as a designated “water spotter.” Be sure to log out when on duty. Take a break once every 15 minutes and stay alert.

“When everyone is looking, no one is looking,” said pediatrician and former lifeguard Sarah Danny. I said recently. “We’re always seeing this: the whole group of adults [is] The boy is drowning, and it’s nobody’s fault, but that’s it [that] I think everyone else is watching. “

Knowing what to look for is important, as it can be difficult to recognize a drowning. It is not like what you have seen in a movie, dozing, vacuuming or asking for help. As Vitone wrote, a viral post on his site This is a “mostly silent event.”

“Children playing in the water are making noise. When they are quiet, you go to them and find out why,” he wrote.

Look for signs When your baby’s head tilts back and forth toward the water, the water level is open. Other signs include shortness of breath, hair covering the face, and bright, glassy, ​​vacant or tightly closed eyes. It can also look like swimmers are trying to climb an invisible ladder.

Another important note: we will be adding barriers like the following to limit access to the area around the pool with four-sided fencing or self-closing hot tub and gates.

“If your house is on the fourth side of the pool, make sure you have an alarm on the door and you’ll get a warning when your child leaves the house,” said Nick Fleming, the Consumer Product Safety Commission. I have said before. Alternatively, you can use a pool alarm to let you know if your child is really in the water.

Learning CPR can be another lifesaving tool to add to your arsenal. When it comes to drowning victims, experts recommend starting with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

“This is not normal, it’s just compressed CPR,” Livingstone said. “Drowning care starts with the air. Breathing is very important in the first place because oxygen-free time is important to the outcome.”