Health Tip: Practice Water Safety With Children Around

(HealthDay News) — A child can drown in what may appear to be very little water, so it’s important to take precautions to help protect your child.

The American Red Cross offers these water safety suggestions for parents:

Never leave a child unsupervised near a body of water.
Enroll a child in an age-appropriate swim class.
If you have a hot tub or pool, protect it with secure barriers, covers and alarms.
Make sure the pool barrier is at least 4 feet high and encloses the entire pool, has self-closing gates, has gates that open away from the pool and has latches that are too high for young children to reach.
Remove ladders and install covers on inflatable or above-ground pools that are not in use.
Remove anything that a child could use to climb into the pool, such as furniture or playground equipment.
Store toys away from the pool.