What Parents Should Know About Water Safety in Austin

Water safety is a crucial skill for parents and children alike. While kids love to spend a day at the pool or the beach, water can turn from fun to dangerous if families don’t take precautions. That’s why the team at British Swim School Austin are committed to making water safety fun, easy, and engaging for Austin-area kids and families.

That commitment includes teaching parents the water safety basics that they need to know to keep kids safe around water. To help, we’ve outlined some key information below about why water safety is so crucial for young children and what parents in the Austin area can do to encourage water safety in kids.

Why Water Safety’s Important

At British Swim School Austin, we know how crucial water safety can be, but many parents underestimate how important it is to keep children safe around water. Unfortunately, a lack of water safety education means that drowning is still the number two cause of accidental death in children, second only to car accidents. Currently, over 800 children are lost each year to drowning fatalities.

The following statistics further stress the need for water safety education in kids and adults:

• Children 1 to 4 years old are the most vulnerable segment of the U.S. population for drowning.
• More than 4,000 children are treated in emergency rooms each year in near-drowning cases.
• Learning water safety early substantially reduces the risk of drowning. Kids between the ages of 1 and 4 who complete water safety classes are 88% less likely to drown than kids of the same age who have not.

Water Safety Tips for Austin Families

Parents with concerns about water safety can take active steps to substantially reduce drowning risks. Key steps that every parent should take around water safety include:

• Parents should purchase US Coast Guard-approved life vests for young children. A properly fitted life vest is the safest flotation device for your child.
• Children should never be left unattended in or near water, even for short periods. Drowning takes much less time than many parents realize, and many cases of drowning involve adults not paying attention “for only a moment.”
• It’s important to teach and reinforce safe pool behavior in children, discouraging risky behavior like running near pools or roughhousing in or near water.
• Parents should enroll their children in water safety programs as early as possible. Water safety classes — like those offered by British Swim School Austin — can teach infants and toddlers essential safety skills like back floating. Later, classes can teach the further safety and swimming skills necessary for water independence.

Water Safety Classes in Austin

If you’re an Austin-area parent looking to get your child started with water safety lessons, we hope you’ll give us a call. Our water safety classes are the perfect way for kids to have fun while learning water safety. Our classes include parent-assisted programs and are open to children as young as three months old. We offer lessons at pools in three different locations, making our classes easily accessible to families in Austin, San Marcos, Kyle, New Braunfels, and Buda.

Call 512-763-7946 today or search for open classes online to get started with water safety lessons from British Swim School Austin.