Before heading to the beach or pool with the kids, you might want to brush up on water safety tips. One of those tips has to do with what your kids wear.
From lifeguards to moms on TikTok, everyone is talking about the “swimsuit color rule” — a simple guide that could ultimately help save someone’s life.
The color of a swimsuit is important — and not just for style. Brightly colored swimsuits, especially neon colors, are much easier to spot underwater. That could mean the difference between life and death if you or your kids encounter difficulty while swimming. Drowning is the No. 1 cause of death for children under 4, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We hear in drowning events that the responder thought the person was a shadow, or a towel, or a pile of leaves on the bottom when in reality it was a person, and the water was playing a trick on us,” ALIVE Solutions — which offers water safety tips and tools — explained in an Instagram post demonstrating how water can trick the eye and obscure people even in shallow water.
While highly visible swimsuits are important to make sure someone can be seen in the water, there are other steps you should take to help prepare you and your child for a safer day at the beach.
Wearing a life jacket, taking lessons, paying attention to others in the water, defensive swimming (learning how to get away from someone who might grab you) and knowing how to navigate against a current can all make for stronger, more confident swimmers.
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