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Drowning Prevention

Drowning... The greatest danger to your child at home

UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM

pool safety fencing Statistically speaking, drowning is a leading cause of death among children under 5 years of age. Studies show that 95% of paediatric drownings occur with children between the ages of 1 and 4. If your child is in this age group, the possibility of such a tragedy occurring is too great to postpone taking action. As soon as your child can crawl, it is important to prevent them from gaining access to your pool.

What about supervision? Nearly all the children who drowned in their home swimming pool were supposed to be under the supervision of an adult at the time of the drowning.

What happened? There was a brief lapse in supervision that allowed the child to slip away unnoticed. That lapse was enough for a family to lose their precious child forever.

What about the amount of time? Studies indicate that most children were missing for less than 5 minutes. A distracting phone call, a knock at the door, a few minutes trying to straighten the house, or putting in that last load of wash. These everyday distractions are all it takes to lose your child.

Also unsettling is the fact that most drowning occurred while both parents were home supervising the child. Meal times (a time when you are most distracted and often assume someone else is supervising the child) were the most frequent times of drowning occurrence.

What about splashing? Pool drownings are generally silent events. There is rarely any splashing or calling out.

Installation of a "Protect-A-Child" Pool Fence System can provide dependable safety to help prevent this kind of tragedy.

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE STATISTICS?

Generally speaking, if we can prevent children under the age of 5 from gaining access to the swimming pool long enough for the supervising adult to realize they are missing and relocate them, we can greatly reduce the likelihood of pediatric drownings.

WHAT STEPS CAN YOU TAKE?

Safeguarding Your Child Can Be Best Accomplished In 4 Primary Ways. These are often referred to as Layers Of Protection.

1. Adult Supervision - Always the most important step and required no matter what additional safety precautions are taken.
2. Fencing The Pool - Generally regarded as the most effective deterrent.
3. Covering The Pool - Winter covers do not offer good protection as they are too difficult to install and remove frequently. Automatic covers are very expensive, not suitable for all pools, and do not allow protection while the pool is in use.
4. Placing Alarms * on doors, windows, and in the pool to alert the supervising adult should a child exit the house or enter the pool.

* A caution against relying solely upon alarms.

While alarms can help, they offer no physical barrier between your child and the pool. For this reason, many people consider alarms as only a secondary layer of protection.

The "PROTECT-A-CHILD" pool fencing system has been helping families safeguard their children around the pool for over 20 years.

Unlike covers and alarms, pool fencing physically prevents children from reaching the pool and allows others to use the pool while the protection remains in place.

"Protect-A-Child's" removable mesh pool fence gives parents the best of all worlds. It provides excellent protection for children, is very attractive, and can be installed in a variety of configurations. Permanent, semi-permanent, or completely removable. The choice is yours. Our unique fencing system provides layers of protection built right into the fence.