Swimming Pool Safety

One of my friends has a net system over her pool. It is called Katch-a-Kid. I believe there office is in Lewisville. I know they have a website so you could do a search of it. My friend also have am alarm on the back door that sounds when the door is opened - she has to put in a code (it is up high also) to open that door - this is different from the house alarm. She has a door stopper like you do also.

We have one of those wrap around mesh and metal tension fences that are 5 feet high and wrap around the pool. It works for kids of all ages and is tall enough that they can't climb over it. We have friends with a disabled child who come to swim and their child is also unable to get in although she is big and strong. It has worked perfectly and I would recommend it highly.

Dear D.,
The door stopper is good, but the time will come that if your child wants in the pool badly enough, he will stack tables and stools to get to it! About the same age that he will try to climb the fence!!

Put in a 4 or 5 foot fence of slats or iron work that has no horizontal toe holds. Also install some kind of bell on the doors. This can be as simple as the old fashioned shop-keepers bell or part of your security system. Ours dings every time an outside door is opened.

Find a pool company or a fence company that can recommend safety features.

D., please don't delay. Several children had alreay drowned in area pools this year!! There is absolutely no excuse for this!

And of course the most important safety tip is to WATCH THEM! Never trust anyone else to watch your children around the pool. Never go in the house to answer the phone or take the roast out of the oven if your children are in the pool area. Have a remote phone. I'm sure you will get more ideas. Use them all. the little things count.

Try a schedule with your 3 year old. Show him how the hands move around to show the time. Tell him you will get in the pool with him every day when the hands are at a certain place. If he trys to go out earlier he doesn't get to go that day or has to do time out. Whatever works for him.

Don't let friends and neighbors bring their children over except by invitation, preferably at our childs scheduled time.

This is very long, but every time I hear about another young life being snuffed out because a moment of inattention, I mentally add to my list.

God bless you. Enjoy your pool and your babies!
Grandma D.

Leslie's Swimming Pool Supplies has a pool alarm that has 2 different kinds of coverage in it. It attaches to the pool and is a water motion detector, so when a child falls into the pool, it sets off the alarm. It also has an infrared perimeter motion detector, where you can set the perimeter to meet your needs. This alarm goes off if anyone enters the perimeter, so you actually know the child is getting close to the pool before they fall in. I bought this (I have 10 grandchildren) and have been happy with it. (I have a 3 year old grandson that somehow smells it when someone leaves the back door unlocked!!) The alarm costs $149.99. You could check it out on their website before going to the store, I think it's leslies.com. Good luck!!!

The first thing for every parent to do is to be certain
that their children are "pool safe" - meaning that they will make the correct self-rescue moves in the event of an accidental drowning.

Statistically, children that drown in pools are found in one of two places: on the surface- face down (they had not been trained to float on their backs and wait for help) OR on the bottom within a foot of the side they fell off of and pointed towards the opposite side of the pool (they had never been trained to turn to the wall , push off the bottom and grab for the wall.)

In combination with training, pool nets that completely cover the pool and extend a couple of feet past the pool perimeter and lay flat to the ground under tension are your best bet. Be aware that should someone get in the water under one of them the net them becomes a death trap.

The other thing you should do is be sure that both parents are CPR and Emergency First Aid trained. SwimPlus in Plano includes CPR in their swim lessons tuitions.

Instead of a fence we are having a katchakid net installed this week. It is a tension net that fits across the pool and anchors outside the pool. Your kid can walk on it, sit on it, it won't let them fall into the pool. My friends have one and really liked it, and like you said with a fence they can climb.

When my daughters children were really young they had a pool. They also had large trees around the pool. We purchased a cover for her pool from Katch A Kid and it was wonderful. We got the mesh cover so it let rainwater in and didn't hold water on top. But it kept the leaves out and, more importantly, it kept the kids and the dog out of the pool. The cover will hold 300 lbs. We could walk around on it all day.

You might want to check them out at:

http://www.katchakid.com/main.htm

The people were wonderful and did a superb job with the installation.

We have a net pool cover and we love it. It is installed right on top of the pool, is easy to remove and put back on. We love the fact that the kids can't get under it, it's see through and the net is sturdy enough that if a child climbs on top of it, they will get wet, but not sink into the water. Take a look and let me know if I can answer any questions for you. Good luck!
http://www.allsafepool.com/pool-safety-net/index2.html?so...

Fences are the best option - especially when paired with door locks and a surface pool alarm. With the nets, your pool can be left uncovered and exposed, potentially resulting in a water related accident. You can order the fence in a 5 foot height, if you want a little more protection. They are, of course, not designed to be a babysitter, but just another boundary between the house and the pool. When our daughter was 6 months old we had a fence installed, and I believe so much in the product I started selling them when our now 18 month old is at Mother's Day Out. Our website is www.poolguardtexas.com and you are MORE than welcome to call me at ###-###-####. Thanks! L. S.

Hi D.. My husband and I purchased the home we currently live in Feb. 2002. It has an in-ground pool in a section of the yard (we are blessed that it doesn't take up our entire yard). At the time we had 2 sons, ages 5 and 3. The first purchase we made (before our sons EVER SAW THE HOUSE) was a Protect-A-Child Fence (located in Garland) for around our pool. It is removable- it locks into pre-drilled slots in the ground. We now have 4 boys ranging in age from 12 - 3 years. Yes, 2 of them have tried to push something (a little tikes slide, etc.) over to the fence to hike over it- but they have been immediately reprimanded. We have also insisted that all of our boys at age 2 learn how to swim- just in case they ever fall in the water. We love our pool fence. We have needed some repairs to it and they are still in business. They made repairs for NOMINAL costs. The fence has held up well (except for when my huband was cutting our large trees and a limb fell on the fence!) We also have a house alarm. All of our exterior doors chime when they've been opened. The bottom line is that there is no substitutue for Parental Supervision. We did not let our boys in the backyard alone until the older ones were 10. That is inconvenient sometimes for my husband and I, but the lives of our children are more valuable than a load of wash or cleaning the house! Best of luck.

I say to put a fence around the pool and teach the kids as they grow that the fence is there for their safety. No climbing allowed.

We've never had a problem with our grandchildren. They understand that they have to respect the pool and be accompanied by an adult when they are near it. Besides drowning, that pool water gets cold most of the year, and they don't want to be in that cold water, because I've told them I'm not going to jump in after them and get cold. Of course, I would, but ...

Even though they can swim well, they still wear lifejackets in the deep end or around the deep end.

I won't even consider just a pool alarm. Precious seconds could be lost getting out to the pool even if it does go off appropriately.

Once my twins learned to walk we immediately looked for safety covers for our pool. After much research, we purchased a safety net that covers the pool and uses tension so that even if the children get out and on the net their face cannot get in the water. You will need instruction on how to put it on and take it off, but after the first time you will be able to do it easily. And because there is a "covering" on the pool my girls who are 22 mos. now really aren't interested in trying to get in the pool. And this is even after they had two weeks of swimming lessons. I HIGHLY recommend this net cover.

Here is the info:
Katchakid
Contact: Heather Raine
###-###-####
###-###-#### (cell)

Check out Katch a Kid net. I just had one installed on our pool. Its a little pricey but it does not look as bad as a fence and once you figure it out, its easy to put on and off. I can now rest easy knowing my son will not fall in by accident.

If I had toddlers, I would not think twice about putting up a fence. Our neighbors have a wrought iron fence around their's, about 4' high with a combo lock and tight slats so no one (or pet) can slip through.

We have other neighbor's with the mesh type.

I think with the ages of your children, it will be a while before they start climbing over a fence. That age groupe will present another whole set of issues :)

Good luck!

We put in the mesh fencing around our pool. They are available in different heights - I think ours is 4 feet high - and the latches are on the inside and are somewhat difficult to open - so it has given me a lot of peace of mind (my son is almost 2). It's not the prettiest thing in the world - but it allows us to still be able to run and play in the yard - and not worry about him falling in. It takes about 10 minutes to take up and down.

We had a mesh fence installed 9 years ago and have loved it. It's 4' tall and no kid ever climbed over it. The nice thing about the mesh is that it's removable, so when we larger groups over, we could remove the fence for the party, and replace it afterwards (that way, everyone doesn't have to come through a 3' opening). Now that our kids are older, we took the fence down for the summer, and other than a few drilled holes in the deck, where the fence poles went, there's no sign that it was ever there. My mom got the wrought iron kind, and now that all of the grandkids are older, and she's thinking about getting rid of the fence, it's a much bigger job.

Just some thoughts if you decide to go with a fence after all.

There are pool alarms. Some are expensive if they have to be installed but there are inexpensive ones that you can put in yourself.www.all-safe-pool-alarms.com/pool-alarms/Pool-Alarms_2

Get that 3 year old into swim lessons ASAP so he can at least get comfortable with holding his breath and floating a little. By the time they can crawl over a fence they probably can swim anyway... you really need to look into a safety net that can be drawn across the pool. Anything heavy to fall on it (kids/dogs, etc,) will remain above water and they could crawl off should they need to. It is less permanent than a fence and can be removed when the kids are old enough not to be at such a risk.
Also, be firm over and over again that they stay away from the edge NO MATTER WHAT and that you will SPANK! They must be fearful. And explain why... they can't breathe in water and they might drown/die. My 5 year old son got that pretty easily and developed a healthy respect(& unfortunately had a scare that helped reinforce the dangers). I wish I could have afforded a net, but was going through a divorce and my ex wouldn't help at the time. My son was playing outside in the winter with the dog, leaned over the pool to get his ball (fully clothed in heavy coat, mittens, etc) and fell in. I had turned my back for 30 - 45 seconds... it was so silent, yet there were still ripples in the water when i looked back. He was floating face up in freezing waters and had turned blue from the cold. I think the shock made him suck in his breath as he hadn't ingested anything, but he wasn't breathing either. I pulled him out, stripped him down, and warmed him with blankets and eventually a lukewarm bath. Shaking him to get him to breath only worked as he started to warm up and then he shrieked....! I still have nightmares. He doesn't remember ( he was 18 months or so), but I sure do. As he got older he still pushed out a window screen and crawled out to play with the dog...bottom line is GET A NET. You can't see everything. I was lucky...

I think the nets are not only safer, they are more practical for your pool. In the fall, when you quit swimming, you can put a leaf cover over the net and then nothing gets in the pool all winter. It also looks nicer - mine is blue and most people can't tell it's on, which is nice because my pool is close to the house and a fence would have been really ugly. Call the katch a kid people and they will find someone close to you that has one that's willing to show you.