Childproofing your pool

Having a swimming pool in your backyard is a welcome luxury. It is a great form of exercise, it is fun to have parties around the pool, it is a great way for families to spend time together and it is a fun place to hang out. It is no wonder that people try to have at least a small pool in their home. But having a pool comes with a lot of responsibility. Your pool should be well maintained for the safety of your family members as well as your neighborhood. It should be well protected at all times as it can be an accident waiting to happen.

If you have young children around the house, there is all the more reason to make sure that you have taken all the right measures to protect the safety of the children. Childproofing the pool will involve two distinct parts. One is the sanitation of the pool to safeguard the children from illnesses. The other is making sure that the swimming pool does not pose a danger to the kids due to accidents.

Keeping the pool safe for kids

Maintenance

Children are prone to all kinds of infections. Your pool should be maintained regularly and cleaned often to make sure that it is sanitized and all impurities are removed.

• Make sure that all floating debris is removed from the pool every day, using a pool net as children could choke on small objects floating in the pool
• Pool should be sanitized using chlorine at least once a week to kill the germs in it. There are chlorine feeders available that disperse chlorine in short bursts that keep your pool sanitized up to a week.
• Regular maintenance by pool maintenance companies is a good idea once in a while to ensure that a thorough cleaning is done

Maintaining the interior of the pool

The interior walls of the pool should be inspected regularly to make sure that pool tiles are not chipped. These can lead to cuts and bruises. Children are quite boisterous while playing in the pool and could get a nasty gash if cut by chipped pool tiles.

When not in use

If you have a pool in your home and young children, you should have some rules about the use of the pool. You must make sure that your kids know that they cannot use the pool unsupervised. Even if they are good swimmers, it is better to have someone keeping an eye on them. If you have very small children in the house, it is safer to make sure that you have more effective safety methods in place. Some ways in which you can childproof your pool is to:

• Have the door leading to the pool locked at all times.
• Make sure that any other access to the pool is also secured carefully
• The area around the pool could be cordoned off with a small fence, with a gate, which is high enough to prevent youngsters from climbing over
• There are safety covers available for pools. They are a bit of a bother to use, but it is better to be safe than sorry. Make sure that when the pool is not in use, it is covered by the sheet.
• Make sure that the sheet is tightly pulled across, as if it isn’t, water can pool on the sheet, making the sheet itself a hazard.

Remember drowning can occur in a few seconds and being careful if you have a pool in the house is very important. Childproofing your pool is essential to guard the safety of your child.

Reference:

http://www.houzz.com/Childproof-pool-fence