[blparent] Swimming pools at home

Thu Jun 23 05:09:23 UTC 2011

It's good to dump the portable pools anyway, safety aside, because the water 
can become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

I'll have to look for the swimsuit with the foam in it.  When we went to the 
water park last week, I was told that Water Wings weren't allowed.  Life 
jackets were okay, but no Water Wings, which are inflatable devices that go 
around a child's arms, sort of like blood pressure cuffs.  The lifeguard 
couldn't explain why Water Wings were banned, but it made me nervous that 
Sarah didn't have them on.

Oh, and the other thing about swim diapers is, most public pools require 
them.  They're designed somehow to keep urine and feces in and pool water 
out.  I've let Sarah play in the sprinklers with a regular diaper, and they 
do expand a lot, but for anywhere that's public, we use swim diapers.  I 
like the Huggies brand for those because I've found they don't sag as much 
as some of the cheaper ones.  I hope Michael gets in the water early and 
often.  It's never too soon.  For Sarah's first summer or two, we used an 
inner tube with a seat built in the middle so she could kick her legs 
underwater, but there was no way she could possibly sink.

Jo Elizabeth

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, 
unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into 
advance."--Franklin D. Roosevelt

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Brandy W" <branlw at sbcglobal.net>
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 8:28 PM
To: "'NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List'" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [blparent] Swimming pools at home

> Yes either a swim diaper, or a cloth swimmer diaper as real diapers are
> going to expand really big and become very heavy.
>
>
>
> "A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll
> smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the 
> future
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>
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Jessica
> Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 2:07 PM
> To: NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [blparent] Swimming pools at home
>
> Our pool just opened here at our apartments and I want to go and take
> Michael. He has a floaty type thing but do I need to get like special
> diapers?
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jun 22, 2011, at 11:44 AM, "PICKRELL, REBECCA M (TASC)"
> <REBECCA.PICKRELL at tasc.com> wrote:
>
>> Yeah we've got something like that too.
>> You could also just use a regular lifejacket too.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org]
>> On Behalf Of jill
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 1:13 PM
>> To: 'NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List'
>> Subject: Re: [blparent] Swimming pools at home
>>
>> Hi,
>> Just a suggestion for your daughter, Wal-Mart now sells a swimsuit
>> with the foam like a life jacket sown inside of it.  It was in the toy
>> dept with all the beach toys and pool supplies.  I got one for Olivia
>> who is 11 months but they had sizes which went up to like 30 or 40
>> pounds I think.  We went into a friend's in ground pool and I held
>> onto her, but the floats did help.  It states that it is not a life
>> saving device, but might help her since she is leery of the inflatable
> things.
>> Jill
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org]
>> On Behalf Of Pipi
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 9:52 AM
>> To: NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [blparent] Swimming pools at home
>>
>> I take care of my 8 and 12 year old niece and nephew. Even though they
>> get mad at me, I stick by the rule that children under 16 will not
>> swim without an adult present. When it is me being the adult, I am in
>> the pool with them,
>>
>> or sitting with my feet on the side. I have some usable sight, but
>> still have taught them that when I call out, they will answer, or we are
> done.
>> As for Savannah at 2 1/2 going swimming, I'm probably way over
>> protective, but oh well. I don't allow many to take her in the pool.
>> She is afraid of inflatable things, so I've never been able to use the
>> baby toys or floaties with her.I've started teaching her the basics of
>> swimming, and as soon as she is old enough, she will have lessons.
>> We do have a portable pool in our yard. There is no fence around it,
>> but I dump it after use. It's a very small pool just for Savannah. We
>> don't swim everyday. Safety is more important than my water bill.
>> Water fun is one area that scares me and I will take the extra
>> precautions to make it an enjoyable and safe time for all involved.
>>
>> Just my thoughts.
>> Pipi
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Jo Elizabeth Pinto" <jopinto at msn.com>
>> To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 1:09 AM
>> Subject: Re: [blparent] Swimming pools at home
>>
>>
>>> Please, please, everybody read this and take it to heart.  I have a
>>> friend
>>
>>> who is very close to a couple whose ten-year-old little girl nearly
>>> drowned this summer.  It was in a swimming pool at an apartment
>>> complex, and the parents were keeping an eye on the child but also
>>> moving boxes and
>>
>>> furniture out of an apartment at the same time.  The little girl was
>>> only under water a few minutes, and her dad knew CPR and started it
>>> as soon as she was pulled out.  But she was on a ventillator for
>>> quite a while, and now it's a very slow recovery process in the
>>> hospital.  Her mind seems to be intact, but she will probably end up
>>> blind and with severe damage to her motor skills.  It's all very sad, 
>>> and
> it happened so quickly.
>>> Supervision can't be stressed enough.  And also teaching your kids
>>> how to swim, at least enough to save themselves and not to panic, is
> crucial.
>>>
>>> My 15-year-old stepson doesn't know how to swim, and it scares me to
>>> death. I won't take him and Sarah to the pool without a sighted person.
>>> Sarah I could put in her Water Wings and stay close to her and we'd
>>> be fine, but both of them would be too much for me.  I took them to
>>> the local
>>
>>> water park last week, and even though there were lifeguards on duty,
>>> I brought along a teenager--I paid for her gas and her ticket into the
> park.
>>
>>> She knows Sarah well.  I told Stephen and the teenage girl that they
>>> could
>>
>>> trade off, so each of them could do the water slides on their own,
>>> but that the rule was, one of them had to have their eyes on Sarah at
>>> all times, period.  The girl said I was paranoid, there were a lot of
>>> lifeguards.  I told her she'd be a mom someday, and then she'd
>>> understand,
>>
>>> but for the moment she just better accept that I had the right to be
>>> paranoid, and that it wouldn't change. Especially with poor Hannah
>>> drowning this summer, and all I've seen that family go through, you
>>> just can't be too careful.  I see moms in the complex here sending
>>> their elementary age children to the pool with their preschool age
>>> siblings all the time, and it scares me to no end.
>>>
>>> Two bits worth of free advice and anecdotes, Jo Elizabeth
>>>
>>> "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless,
>>> unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to
>>> convert retreat into advance."--Franklin D. Roosevelt
>>>
>>> --------------------------------------------------
>>> From: "Veronica Smith" <madison_tewe at spinn.net>
>>> Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 9:47 PM
>>> To: "'NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List'" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
>>> Subject: [blparent] Swimming pools at home
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Tots can drown in portable swimming pools, too
>>>>
>>>> By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY
>>>>
>>>> Portable pools pose a greater safety threat to small children than
>>>> many parents realize, a new study suggests.
>>>>
>>>> About two dozen children each year drown in portable pools,
>>>> according to a study published today in Pediatrics. Nearly all are
>>>> under age 5.
>>>>
>>>> Unlike permanent pools, portable pools aren't typically required to
>>>> meet any local safety standards, says study author Gary Smith,
>>>> director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide
>>>> Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
>>>>
>>>> Smith notes that portable pools are increasingly popular and come in
>>>> all sizes. Hard-plastic wading pools, which hold about 18 inches of
>>>> water, may cost only a few dollars at a local drugstore.
>>>> Family-size, inflatable pools, nearly as large as a small, in-ground
>>>> pool, can cost closer to $1,000, he says.
>>>>
>>>> These pools pose unique risks, says Meri-K Appy,  president of Safe
>>>> Kids USA, an advocacy group. Few people, for example, are willing to
>>>> invest in building a safety fence around a portable pool  one of the
>>>> best ways to prevent drownings  because a fence could cost more than 
>>>> the
> pool itself.
>>>>
>>>> These pools are too small for people to invest in an isolation fence
>>>> but too large to drain every time," Appy says.
>>>>
>>>> About 11% of all pool drowning deaths in kids under 5 take place in
>>>> portable pools,  the Consumer Product Safety Commission says.
>>>>
>>>> Children drowned in as little as 2 inches of water, according to the
>>>> study, based on data from a total of 209 deaths from 2001 to 2009.
>>>>
>>>> About 43% of the children were being supervised when they went under
>>>> water; 39% were unsupervised; and 18% of kids died during a "lapse"
>>>> in supervision.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Parents don't always understand that it just takes a couple of
>>>> minutes for children to be submerged under water for their breathing
>>>> and heart to stop,"
>>>> Smith says. What's different about drowning is that it's quick, it's
>>>> silent and it's final.
>>>>
>>>> When supervising kids in the water, Appy says, caregivers need to
>>>> give children their full attention and be only an arm's length away.
>>>> Children have died at swimming parties, surrounded by others,
>>>> because adults weren't within reach.
>>>>
>>>> Drowning is the leading cause of death from unintentional injuries
>>>> in children ages 1 to 4, causing 29% of these deaths  more even than
>>>> traffic accidents, says the Centers for Disease Control and
>>>> Prevention. They include not only pools and lakes but bathtubs.
>>>> Parents also should learn CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation,
>>>> says Susan Baker, professor with the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury
>>>> Research and Policy. The study notes that few parents even attempted
>>>> CPR, perhaps because they doubted their skills.
>>>>
>>>>
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