Latest / The Birth Lounge Podcast / Ep. 457: Drowning Prevention: Essential Water Safety Tips Every Parent Should Know with Tyler Bradshaw, CWSI [RECAST]

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Ep. 457: Drowning Prevention: Essential Water Safety Tips Every Parent Should Know with Tyler Bradshaw, CWSI [RECAST] · The Birth Lounge Podcast

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put those phones down.
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I, that could probably be said for tons of different areas in our lives, but especially at the pool, put that phone down.
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See you there hey there.
Thanks for having me.
I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about water safety.
I'm really excited.
Yeah, absolutely.
I was just telling you that I've never covered this topic before on the podcast, which is really surprising considering my background, although that was a long time ago, but it is still just a piece of once you are in water safety, it's like something that just stays with you.
It's a core piece of who you are, and I'm very excited to bring this to our audience.
I had put out a question box previously, and our audience had some really wonderful questions.
And one of the overwhelming senses that I got is that parents, know that it's a thing and it is really scary, but I don't know that it's something that a lot of families are putting a lot of thought into and you and I both know how important water safety is.
So I'd like to start before we dive too far into the conversation with maybe some quick drowning stats that parents should be aware of.
This will help set the stage for why water safety is so important.
Sure.
Yeah.
And I appreciate that.
You're right.
It doesn't get the year round buzz that it's some of the things.
tend to get, in May, it's water safety month.
We're always talking about there.
You start really thinking about it in the summertime, but you're right.
It's a year round thing.
It's an ever present thing.
Kids see water all the time, so I'm sure most people know drowning is the number one cause of death among Children's ages one to four and the second leading cause of death between ages of five and 14.
So heavy fact to start with.
But that's what we're here to do today, right? Really talk about it.
Participation in formal swim lessons actually can reduce the rate of drowning by 88 percent in kids who are ages one to four.
So just that, It doesn't even say what to be that acclimation.
A good swim lesson, right 69% of children younger than age five.
Th one.
We're not expected to be in or at the pool at the time of their drowing that.
Yes.
And I saw that even a higher percent of that in their home.
Like the parents had just seen them And then, I think it just shows how quick it happens.
And, yes, oh my gosh.
Okay, sorry to interrupt, but I saw that and my mouth dropped to the floor.
I know, it makes my hair stand on end.
It really does.
It's the old adage of it happens when you're least expecting it type situation.
The American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends swim lessons as young as one.
They've lowered that recommendation, but a lot of programs start like here at Tots, we start as young as four months.
The earlier you can get a kid in the water is the recommendation, but definitely by one, just to start building that building block.
I think it's important to note, we'll talk a little bit later about, we talked drowning, but there's also non fatal drowning.
Non fatal drowning can range from no injuries to serious injuries.
So it's an important part of the water safety journey that we talk about here all the time but it can look different.
Drowning can look different from case to case.
I think it's interesting to point out that children with autism are 160 times more likely to drown than children without it.
I have a huge place in my heart and our program.
We have an adaptive program for kids with special needs.
So I just want to put that out there because it's we can't run from those numbers.
We can try to fix those numbers.
That's the goal.
And then swimming, swimming pools, most children ages.
And then it only takes one to two inches of water for a child to be able to drown in it, depending on their size and their age.
Scary facts, but those are the cold hard numbers.
So I'm glad we get to talk about it today.
We can raise its level of, consciousness in the common conversation.
So I'm excited.
Yeah, I appreciate it.
Yeah.
So drowning is very scary.
We talked about that.
And I think that I agree with you instead of being scared of it and running from it because it does happen so often and when you least expect it, raising your awareness of how to prevent drowning, I think is really the key.
So for me, I equate swim lessons for your children and having discussions about drowning prevention in your home.
To cpr having cpr as a parent for me.
It's a non negotiable You have a small child in your home small children will put things in their mouth that increases your risk of you know Having a choking episode you need to know cpr swim lessons are the same thing for me Can you dive a little bit more into the idea of children are around water all the time? Talk to us about some places that drowning can happen that maybe we I haven't thought of because you had mentioned, yeah, it's year round.
And I thought, oh yeah, one of the best times to do some lessons is actually in the winter when you have nothing else to do, you're trapped indoors, come on and get in a heated pool and teach your child some lessons so that in the spring they're ready, right? They're already pool ready and you don't have to do the work to get them there.
Talk to us about the places that maybe drowning happens that we're not expecting.
Yeah.
Great question.
We do a lot of water safety presentations.
And so sometimes we engage with the kids asking them like, where do you see water? And we'll get a lot of common answers Massachusetts being a beach bound state.
The most common answer we get is at the beach.
We, we see water at the beach for sure.
We see water at the lake.
We see water in a pond, in a stream or in a river, but I'll tell you what's interesting.
He, the most important one that honestly, nine 10 kids don't say, and we always have to reiterate to them, Yeah.
is the bathtub.
I'm like there's a place that you guys might see maybe a couple times a week.
You get clean in there.
There's, there might be a lot of water.
There might be a little bit of water.
Do you know where that might be? And then sometimes they really put it together.
The bathtub or the shower.
The kids are in a bath or a shower.
And that access to water, like I said earlier with that stat, you only need one to two, one to two inches.
If a kid doesn't have the skills and they go face first and two inches of water, it might as well be fully submerged head.
Water in tons of different places.
Sometimes where you're at least expecting.
Yeah, that's so scary.
And it's fast.
It's fast.
It's less than a minute, you guys.
We have to really be there on top of it to right the situation.
Okay, you had mentioned different types of drowning.
We've got fatal drowning, non fatal drowning.
We also get a lot of questions about dry drowning.
Can you talk to us about the differences of all of those? Yeah, for sure.
So dry drowning is a common question that we get here too.
What does it look like? How does it present? What should the follow up be? We get a lot of questions.
There's a lot of information out there.
Sometimes it can be good and bad information overload, but dry drowning is one of those situations where a kid has a type of drowning incident, right? They're wearing out.
They're running on the side of the pool and they fall in.
They're on a float with their cousin and they get tipped over, right? So it's an incident where they are potentially underwater.
It doesn't matter how it happened, but they are underwater.
And there's either a save or they grab a wall or there is some type of interjection where maybe someone has to grab them, right? So usually, good or bad, the good about dry drowning is that it happens pretty quickly.
You would start to see the signs within minutes to an hour.
It's an inflammation of the lungs.
It's a bit of a rattling cough.
It presents pretty quickly.
But that doesn't mean that it will always present quickly.
So I think the big portion of the dry drowning piece is just to remain vigilant.
Stay abreast of what's going on with your child or whoever you're tending to in that situation.
Listen for their breathing.
Make sure they're not getting those shallow breaths.
Listen for the rattling of what could be potentially water in the lungs.
If you have questions, go see your doctor.
It's definitely you hear about it because it happens.
It's not super, super common, but if you don't stay on top of it, it could become something a little bit bigger and that inflammation could grow into a much larger problem.
Yeah.
And then the fatal versus nonfatal.
Is that truly just as straightforward as fatal? Obviously equal to death and nonfatal is that you're survived.
Correct.
So nonfatal would be thankfully that they're still with us.
But that is when you do run the risk of potentially issues after the fact, whether depending on how long they were underwater or what it may look like after the situation.
But those nonfatal instances are where you run the risk of steams and dry, drowning usually.
Yeah, would you say that, for that monitoring period that we're still watching and monitoring their lungs for 24 hours after that incident is a good amount.
And if anything, what if it takes off, call your pediatrician.
But if we're good at 24 hours, then we can assume that they're good.
Is that kind of the idea? Yeah, that usually is the consensus.
And so you just remain vigilant there and you're just paying attention to what yeah, sure.
Scary stuff.
Okay, as a lifeguard, when I was a lifeguard, one of the, I think I don't know what I want to call it.
It's almost sneaky, it's subtle, and It's unintentional.
You don't realize that you're doing it, but it's distractions for you as the parent, as the caregiver, nannies do it.
Grandparents do it.
Babysitters do it.
Distractions like your phone.
You gotta get off your phone at the pool, you guys.
It, again, it only takes a couple of seconds.
So if you're at a place that doesn't have lifeguards on duty, you are the lifeguard.
Stay off your phone.
For me, I always watch parents be distracted by other parents.
And it's awkward, right? Because you want to be engaged in conversation.
You want to be able to say hi to your neighbor that you also bumped into at the pool.
But.
Again, you're on guard.
You need to be watching your kids.
So can we talk a little bit about distractions and what parents can do to still maybe be friendly, but also keep their eye on their children at the pool? Because that's a really hard thing to do.
Yeah, there's the fun of the pool.
You usually go with company.
You're, you like to hang with people there, right? It's summertime and I totally get it.
And you're right.
We live in a day and age of so many distractions.
So many distractions.
The biggest one is obviously the phone.
Yeah put those phones down.
I, that could probably be said for tons of different areas in our lives, but especially at the pool, put that phone down.
Your top priority is that kid, those kids, whoever you're there with, right? Yeah.
Another thing we talk about often for distractions to try to minimize that is designate a water watcher, right? If you are there with multiple families, put yourself on a rotation, right? Because the second part of your question was, how do you handle those conversations if it is with an adult? Sometimes those conversations are negated by just being there.
designating a water watcher because then that person doesn't have to feel bad or feel bad telling someone they need to end the conversation and sometimes those conversations don't even come up because the other adults know that Tyler is the water watcher this 20 minutes now fairness that water watcher should be a little bit of a rotation maybe every 20 minutes there should be clear communication about that sometimes we'll even give people wristbands if they want to be the water watcher you could have fun with it right the person holding the ducky is the water watcher but that water watcher comes with its own heavy responsibilities, right? It's, you really are watching.
You're in the same way that a lifeguard scans their zone.
You're scanning, right? I'm not saying you got to watch every kid, but if you're there with four, make sure you count four bobbing heads every time you're staring in your zone.
The water watcher is that really big piece.
With our lifeguards, we can talk about distractions often because they come in sometimes big and small sizes, right? So say you're the water watcher and you're laying on your lounger.
You have two kids, right? You got Johnny swimming here and Samantha's in the water.
Samantha gets out because she needs to tell you something.
She's standing directly in front of you.
You can no longer see Johnny.
Totally unintentional, right? It's a just a conversation.
Your daughter wants a sandwich and she wanted to get out, whatever it may be.
So for our lifeguards, we try to always talk about if you need to have a conversation, it's a shoulder to shoulder.
It's never someone in front of you, someone in your line of sight from the pool.
So try to manage distractions that are easily presentable, but then there's also ones that you might not see coming.
The sun and I forgot my sunglasses, you guys might need to move to a different table, right? Or a loud group just sat down in front of you and you don't think you're going to be able to hear a cry out from your kid because they're a little bit younger.
You might need to reposition yourself.
So I know that's a little bit inconvenient, but thinking about the alternative, having to move a couple of seats really isn't that bad.
So the distractions are just so hard.
We live in a little bit.
day and age of tons of distractions.
So the water watcher piece, the phones and just anything that could step in your line of sight that might get in your way.
For sure.
Those are the big distractions that definitely pop into my head.
Yeah.
When I think about I think communication between adults at the pool.
It's also when you have those distractions handing off that water watcher spot, handing off the person and saying Oh, I'm going to get so and so a sandwich.
You're on pool duty, or you have these three children and name them by name.
It's also, Who's actually watching the children, whether you are distracted or not are you watching or am I watching? And I think that's often lost in translation too.
If you please don't, but if you were to look up drowning stories, a lot of times the communication is really something that was missed between adults and nobody was watching the baby or the child.
And that's how the drowning ultimately happened.
So in order to prevent that, just make sure that you are checking in with everyone.
Never.
I'm going to assume that it's not you and never assume that someone else is watching the kids around the water, which is super important.
Okay, you had mentioned water wings and like swim arm floaties, and I am super duper anti water wings.
Matter of fact, one time, About, gosh, I don't know, eight or nine years ago, maybe even longer than that.
I, my family was at Disney world.
We were on vacation.
I was not an active lifeguard at this point.
And I was walking by the pool and there was a little child that was hanging by her water wings.
And I made a save at Disney world when I was there on vacation.
Another time I was in the Bahamas with my family and in the lazy river, there was a child trapped under the floatie and the lifeguards were not safe.
Seeing them, I made a save.
Then as well you never know when these things are gonna strike, but there are things that increase the risk of drowning.
Water, wings being one of those things.
I absolutely despise them and I think that they're terrible.
I do believe that parents that put them on their child have every good intention.
Sure.
But they are actually very dangerous.
Talk to us about your philosophy and your opinion on.
Water wings and other kind of maybe devices that parents might or as an option.
Sure.
We're in the same headspace for sure.
So I am very anti flotation device.
I don't all of them.
We have, yeah, we are adage is that the safest swimmer is a swimmer in the parent with in the water with the parent.
In the water with a parent.
Now I know that there's different outliers to that situation.
Okay I'm going with three kids and I Sure, and I'm not saying that all water wings are bad.
I'm just saying that if you have an option of no water, wings and in with the parent, that's always gonna be your safest option.
Always gonna be your safest option.
The water wings, the old school ones that are just on the arms, those, I'm sure everyone has seen those are really susceptible to being able to slide right off.
If the kid jumps up, old school pencil, jump in, they're coming right off.
And also what people don't talk about often with the water wings is the false sense of security that it gives a kid.
It's great that they can feel themselves bobbing and they're slowly moving their feet and it feels like they're kicking, but that's not swimming.
And when they get into the water, they think that they can swim, which is sometimes more dangerous than a kid who's fearful.
A kid who thinks they can swim but cannot swim is a kid who will jump right in or a kid who will walk off a bench or a kid who will go down to explore the pool when you're not watching because they think they can swim.
And so that's why they can be really dangerous on the back end.
Not that they will hurt you or anything like that, but it's a false sense of security.
Some of them are better than others.
Obviously our recommendation is, Coast Guard approved.
But there's tons of different ones out there on the market.
The ones that keep people from Kids completely vertical can be tough because then when it's time to get them swimming, we're trying to get them horizontal and they are used to having their legs a little bit lower.
But ultimately our thought process on water wings and flotation devices is that we only use any type of flotation device here.
That's an aid like a kickboard or a noodle that we put like a eight month old in for a kicking device just to hold them up.
But other than that, our recommendation is to just be in the water with the kids, if you can, and that goes back to breaks.
That goes back to communication that right? Because no, and it's something you got me thinking when you said it, you said about the communication.
It also goes back to knowing your own capacity, right? Hey, I can water watch, but only for the next 10 minutes.
I got to take a break.
You got to communicate that right? Just like it goes with the water wings, it's all about communication with the kids and with the parents that you're with and knowing your own capacity.
If you're going to be one person, you.
With three non swimmers yet, you might have to figure out a rotation, a way to take breaks or introduce some safe alternatives.
And that's totally okay.
You got to do what works for you.
And that's what's important to know.
But it's also a little pulse check for yourself.
Can I do this? What do I need? Am I going to be able to do it? So it's that internal communication, and communication with who you're there with.
That's our thought on floaties.
Yeah, cool.
I, it feels very aligned to me.
I I don't know that I consider myself anti all flotation devices, but you do bring interesting points.
There are pros and cons to every =choice of kind of those additives, those tools that you have.
And just as long as you're willing to basically, Help your child unlearn those things and then relearn the right way at a letter at a later date Then that's gonna be one of those risk pros cons that you're willing to take on right? definitely Yeah, okay, interesting thoughts there.
We keep mentioning it, and I would be remiss if I didn't ask.
What are your tips to someone who is going to the pool with three non swimmers or two just wild and out toddlers? Maybe they're twins.
What do we do, and what are your tips for parents of multiples? Especially, Parents that are going to the pool.
Just one parent on multiple Children.
For sure.
One.
Like I said, know your capacity, right? What? What's your own personal bandwidth, right? Can we stand for an hour? We're staying for two hours.
If you're familiar with your pool, you can sometimes use your pool's policies and procedures to help you out.
What I mean by that is so like we live in an apartment.
My apartment takes an adult swim every 10 till the top of the hour.
That's a great way to get a kid out of the pool.
Hey, when the whistle blows this next hour, we're going home.
That's the rules we're packing up, right? So the clear communication with, to your kids is also very important.
And I would say if you're going to be bringing a handful to the pool, let the staff know, tell them, tell the lifeguard Hey, I am going to be in solo.
We're going to hang right here in this shallow area.
But if you need to not reprimand my kid, but if you can help me, if Johnny's running and you need time to stop, please, I can use all the help that I can get.
So those people are resources there for you.
You're you might feel like you're alone, but there's a lot of people out there for you.
You're not alone.
You know what I mean? So letting them know, and then also staying in a safe place, right? You, if you have three non swimmers, let's say you have three non swimmers, but one is independent.
For today, that one independent swimmer might have to hang back in the area where the place with the younger swimmers are going to be hanging, right? And.
It's all you can do in that moment.
There might be a day where you can take a more advanced summer and or the kids are down for a nap and they're strolling.
You can get that can or something like that.
But it's all about knowing where you're going to be and really planning that out.
Breaks.
So important.
They're your best friend.
Hey, we need to take a break, whether it be to re screen, whether it be to get out and drink some water to go try and use the bathroom integrate breaks.
If your kids can make it.
For all the way until adult swim, if that's every hour you could definitely use that to your advantage, but if not take your own breaks, you could just really laying that out there.
And then knowing where you are in the pool, knowing where you are, as far as depth goes, as far as where you are to a lifeguard, where you are to, to your stuff, your resources, whatever you brought with you, if they're going to be in floating floaties or puddle jumpers, or if they're going to be in a float close to a wall close to your stuff.
So you're not too far away from it.
Should they need to get out? Those would be the big things for me is like really just I think planning most, which most parents probably do.
Really planning it out and being strategic.
If you don't know the pool you're going to, I would take some time to acclimate before you go.
Really use that time where you might be screening the kid down to really take a look around where are the guards, where are they sitting? How many are there? Ooh.
That, if that area feels a little bit less guarded to you hanging in an area where there is a guard.
But staying close to the steps will always be your best friend.
Yeah.
All right.
Cool.
I want to circle back to one question that dropped into my head about the the water watchers when parents are scanning the pool.
So as a lifeguard, I was taught to scan every 10 seconds.
You scan parents.
Should they be following the same rule? Every 10 seconds, you're counting heads.
Every 10 seconds, you're making sure you say your entire roster of children that you are.
Control of.
Yeah, that's a great point.
Lifeguards are taught to scan, do a head count.
There's tons of different type of lifeguarding strategies.
But lifeguarding is mainly for scanning for a whole zone.
So it's for sometimes parents who are water watching.
They might be overwhelmed feeling like they're looking at the whole zone.
So you really can focus on the kids.
It's probably a parent's just natural, superpower to scan.
Also, everybody.
That's just how I think we are.
Once we've had Children, but really, the head count or counting, saying the names of the people that you're there with, but constant scanning.
Exactly that holds true for anybody.
Whether you want to count your scanning the zone, you're counting your kids that you're there with.
The sentiment remains the same.
Absolutely.
Scanning across 10.
Always counting the heads.
See, you haven't forgotten, hee.
Yeah, I haven't forgotten.
Like I say it's always in me.
Anytime that my family's around water now, I still find myself scanning and I try and turn it off, but it's just one of those things that you don't, yeah.
I know.
I tell my wife all the time, it's hard for me to go to a pool for like relaxation and now, cause it's always been my, my, business life, so it's weird.
I've been a lifeguard forever.
I've taught lessons forever.
So it's hard to go and just relax without giving it a critical analysis.
It is.
I always say that lifeguarding was my favorite job.
I didn't know about what you do when I was taking jobs.
But if I did, I very well might have had a different career path because I do say that it was always my favorite jobs.
Okay, I'd like to transition to people with pools at their home because a lot of people either buy homes with pools or they want a pool.
And I think that A lot of the drowning prevention comes with understanding the rules and the responsibility of having a pool in your home and maybe in your little community.
So can we talk about a couple of things that parents need to know about pool safety, whether it be in your backyard or it's just in your like neighborhood, what should parents be aware of as far as pool safety and owning a pool? Yeah, I will give you some points and then I'll skip to a curriculum piece here that I think is an important emphasis that hopefully it'll all make sense.
And I can round it out here on the podcast.
So in, in water safety, we call them the ABCs here at aquatides, a adults B barriers, C classes.
So basically what we're talking about is the B here barriers.
So most states, in, in legislation has, as, force you to put a fence around the pool.
That's if you have not, if you live in a state that has not gotten there, do it.
Put the fence around the pool.
There's tons of options.
There are tons of options.
From a just basic standpoint, make sure that fence is locked.
Make sure it's not scalable.
Make sure that the kid can't climb it.
If it's one of the netting ones, make sure they literally can't run through it.
Make sure that when they're in their big tykes car, they're not going to plow right through the side of that fence.
It has to be a little bit more durable.
Kids will find a way.
You know what I mean? So for the barriers piece, just, having something on the outside another barrier that has gotten really common.
They've been around for a long time.
There's tons of different types of like wave detection software.
You can get alarm systems that kind of are sitting on a pool.
And if it detects that there has been a wave now, the good and bad there, it's a Frog jumping in, make it go off, I don't know, but there's tons of different software that go along with it.
Techno, it's 2024 technology has gotten crazy.
Just the digital everything.
But there's a lot of like sounds wave sensing technology out there.
That's another barrier for you.
Obviously barrier from a chemical standpoint.
Make sure your skimmer baskets are covered.
Make sure they're not cracked.
Make sure we're that's a huge tripping hazard.
A lot of them screw in.
I know here in the massachusetts they need to be screwed back in.
So you pop that screw it up.
They're just stubbing their toes.
So it seems so simple, but they stubbed their toe, they go to reach their toe, they fall in the pool boom.
It happens, so that's another barrier piece for you.
The part that I wanted to circle back on is here.
We often equate water to a highway here at Aqua Tots.
And in the same way that you wouldn't let a kid throw toys onto a highway, we're not gonna let them throw toys into a pool.
We actually will encourage parents if they're gonna throw toys like in a bathtub to help them clean them up and explain that we don't throw it to the bathtub if we're not in the bathtub, because then we're gonna want to go get those toys there.
It's gonna get you excited.
You want to go get it.
So we don't throw It's always back in and we wouldn't sit and play on the side of a highway unattended, so we're not going to let a kid sit.
My son is three and a half and he's decently independent and he'll say, I just want to go stick my feet in until you're ready, right? Because I'll change him first.
Not until I'm down there, not even sitting on the side, not even dipping our feet in.
The temptation is too strong.
Because feet, dipping my feet, turns to, I'm going to lean forward and just play a little bit and whoop! Humpty Dumpty right off that wall, and and just like we wouldn't let a kid play by a highway unattended, we're not going to let them play by a pool unattended.
So that, that barrier, that fence is going to enable you to Check off that third step, but those first two that's on a parent, right? Like that, that they have to know that there is that invisible barrier.
We don't want to throw toys in there because then we're tempted to go get those toys.
And we don't want to sit there and kick and splash.
It's just, Oh, but mommy, it's just kicking and splashing.
That could easily turn into just a little bit of eagerness.
Which Humpty dumps us right into the pool.
The big pieces, those barriers and some, like the little things around the pool and the defense around the pool.
We also want to make sure that the gate is always locked and that I think I may have already said this, but it's not like a fence that's scalable.
Like a kid can't climb right over it or something like that.
A lot of those new ones, that's some recent recommendations that I've seen floating around in swim school world.
Cause there's some nice new fences out that are collapsible and you can take it down in the winter and, aesthetics is important.
But I saw a video on YouTube of a kid literally taking a little tykes, the cars and just plowing right through the side of it.
And I thought, never thought about that.
I, I thought about the kid climbing it, but never like just plowing right into the side of it.
But a kid thought of it, a kid thought of it.
So yeah, it's so important.
It's like water, right? Like water will always find a way kids will always find a way.
And imagine just Oh my God, I'm so gutted.
Now thinking I did the right thing.
I put a fence up and it didn't do its job because I didn't know enough to think about the kind of the durability.
So goodness, I'm so glad we're having this conversation so people can think like that.
That's nothing I would ever do.
ever think about.
I'd be like, I put up a fence that was the rule.
And to, oh my gosh, I'm so glad we're having this conversation.
Okay.
We've talked about CPR too.
Pool covers are another thing, but I think one thing that you and I both agree on is the best drowning prevention is actually teaching your child to swim.
It's, it really is the best and it's not going to happen overnight.
It is a process.
It's not a one Summer process.
Typically, they need practice.
Children are learning things, right? Their bodies will get bigger from summer to summer.
They have to relearn, not relearn everything, but they need to practice those skills.
They didn't swim all winter.
Let's talk a little bit about why it's so important.
It's important that our children get swim lessons other than everything that we have already chatted about and I don't know if there is anything else but just when you hear a parent say, I don't know like why would we need some lessons we don't have a pool in our backyard really ever go to the beach.
What is your, what's your answer for parents when maybe they're on the fence about deciding if some lessons is important to their family or not.
For sure.
And then that happens a lot.
We'll get people who are just on the fence for a multitude of reasons.
And I could give you, a phrase that I love, which is that the world is 70 percent water and kids are 100 percent curious, but it's that exact.
It really is.
The reason why we encourage it from a, why should I get started? So young standpoint it's muscle memory, right? When a kid is in the womb, they are used to closing their epiglottis.
We'll talk about this later, but they are used to it.
So if you can get a kid in between four and seven months, they will naturally, even with their mouth open.
close that epiglottis because they're used to it in the womb.
So there's the reason to start early is because you can just build on that muscle memory that they already have, which is super exciting.
And then it's just acclimation.
The more you do it, the easier it will be, the more comfortable they will be.
Fear is an interesting thing as it relates to swim lessons.
Fear, we all know fear, it can be crippling sometimes, right? So we often see that a kid about three, three and a half cognitively, they start to understand the fear that is associated with water, right? A three year old that doesn't know giantness of water and what it can do doesn't have the scared fear that you see.
They have this.
They have the fear that might be something unknown.
They have a fear that I don't want to leave mommy.
Those are different types of fear.
You get a kid who has not been in the water before coming in at four or five They're fearful.
They are scared.
They can articulate the word drown.
They understand that it is something that could hurt them bad.
So what's tough, can it be overcome? Absolutely.
The point, you're never too old to start.
I want your audience to hear that loud and clear.
So get started at any age, but You just got to look at fear differently, because a four or five year old, they can understand what that water can do.
And you got to build, you got to break that down first, you got to really build trust and help them understand they can overcome the fear.
Then the cool thing is they're so strong that once you overcome that, it clicks quickly.
But as a three year old, and you're starting them younger, you can get ahead of that fear.
Get them comfortable with the water before they ever become fearful.
So our big thing is, the more you do it, acclimation, breath control, those are the obvious ones.
The not so obvious one is really trying to beat that fear because you get a kid in it to get them comfortable going underwater.
They will never have that huge, they will learn as they get older and they will understand what it can do, but they will also know that they don't have to be fearful of that because they can go underwater and they have that confidence behind it.
So that's why we really encourage them to start young because ultimately.
Kids are smart and they get it, like they get it.
Yeah, one of my favorite parts of being a lifeguard was doing some lessons and I typically got kids in there between 15 months and three years old and they were just so much fun and they like the water most of them Really like the water.
Okay.
I think a lot of people have questions about What would a swim lesson look like for a four month old, right? What does it look like for a baby? So I would like for us to maybe go through each age group and we can start at our baby babies and I can step you through our different age groups if you are okay, sharin' what that would look like.
So parents can know what to expect.
Does that sound good? Totally.
Let's work through it and see what we got.
So our first two level, like I can give you here specifically.
It's worth noting.
I've been teaching swim lessons for 20 years and I've taught tons of different curriculums.
Obviously I love our the Aqua-Tots curriculum, but I can't give some comparison.
You know what I mean? And as it relates to the young kids, I can give you what we do here, but it's pretty similar in most places when you're getting in for a parent taught lesson, there's going to be student objectives and they're going to be parent objectives.
Yeah.
Parent objectives might be how to properly hold my child which hold is appropriate during which skill set right here at Aqua-Tots.
We are a pro submersion school.
So we introduced the idea of breath control on the first day.
So for us here in levels one and two, you're getting a Lots of breath control.
Lots of breath control.
We do it through a process of what we call stimulating the epiglottal reflex.
So there's a lot of science behind it.
It's a bunch of cues and lift and lower stimuli.
But we're doing that as early as four months.
So not in a scary or intimidating way.
Ultimately, the cool thing about parent taught lessons.
If you're fearful, if someone's listening, it's I'm scared.
I don't want to have to get in and do that.
Remember, it's a parent taught lesson.
Thank you.
You're in charge, you're holding the baby.
You know what I mean? Like we're encouraging you.
We're going to explain why we're doing this and we're going to get you comfortable being able to do it.
So the breath control piece is huge.
And all of our lessons in level one and level two we don't see tons of, Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky.
We're not, we're not seeing, but we do see, kids can start as young as four months.
We see tons of progress.
What does progress look like at that age? Independent rolling onto their back in some instances sometimes even rolling back to their stomach by the time they get to 30 months.
But we will encourage that rollover as a safety piece here at Aquatats.
We work a lot on grip strength, so they got to be able to turn and return to the wall, get back to the wall.
Hold on to the wall.
Show me they can cup that coping for at least five seconds.
So they get a lot of wall skills.
They're getting back float.
They're getting kicking whether it be over the shoulder or in a noodle boat they're getting rollover again towards the end, and they're getting some lift and lowers with pass and release back and forth to mom and or dad or guardian and then back to the instructor to one, get them comfortable with someone who's not mom, dad, or guardian, and then also to just another reinforcement of the breath control piece.
So the big ones for level one and level two are that student objective parent objectives.
So you're both getting good goals and you're learning things and able to ask good questions.
But the big ones would be breath control, front float, back float.
Submersion, obviously, and then the rollover with the big safety pieces.
And what is the age group for level one and two, four months to 30 months? So level, the level one is four months to a year, right? When you celebrate your first birthday, we graduate into level two is 13 months to 30 months.
And then right after right at 30 months, two and a half, they go straight into level three.
And what does that entail? Cool.
Level three here is comfort.
Comfortable floating on your back, comfortable floating on your stomach, comfortable with breath control comfortable with depth perception.
So getting an object off the bottom of the pool.
And then we have we teach elementary backstroke, which is, we call it chicken star rocket.
So that's a recovery stroke.
So if a kid is able to roll over onto their back, which we teach them the most non exertional stroke available is the chicken star rocket, the elementary backstroke.
So essentially, from a safety perspective, we're not only teaching kids to swim, we're teaching them to be safe around water, but we're also teaching them how in an emergency to buy themselves some time until somebody can get there.
Cause sometimes that's the name of the game.
Kid doesn't have to be able to swim.
Can they roll to their back and get breath and give and lifeguard an extra 30 seconds? Sometimes that's everything they need.
So here we're working on that chicken star rocket, which is a non exertional propulsion on their back, elementary backstroke.
But again, the breath control is the huge piece.
We're really stimulating that epiglottal reflex to work on being able to not only, it's not just closing your mouth, it's closing that flap of cartilage to make sure, even if your mouth is open, that water is not going to get into your lungs.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
And the next step, when do you graduate that class and move up? Great question.
So level one and level two are all age based.
Level three through eight are all skill based.
So from level three we, like I said, 2024, if you don't adapt with technology, it's gonna, it's gonna, the wave is going to crash into you.
So we are technology focused.
It's propelling us into the new age.
We have an app That's a different story.
But all of our progress is tracked on an iPad.
So my instructors are in there with iPads and they're tracking he's progress.
And as soon as he masters all the skills It gets updated and you graduate, you go to the front desk.
So level three, there's certain mastery skills we have to see to be able to master them.
But the big things for level three is you do start to see a little bit of independent swimming and then in level four that you start to see even more independence.
And level four, we really take a hands off approach.
They should be essentially moving from kick scooper to freestyle.
We start teaching them to pop up and get a breath.
We start introducing Backstroke kick, backstroke arms and then the same standard procedure.
They graduate from four and they go to five.
We start introducing breaststroke kick.
They go to six.
We start introducing breaststroke arms and butterfly seven and eight, all the way to swim team.
We can take them all the way through flip turns and all of the strokes.
We can't, we don't dive here, but we get them all the way ready for a competitive swim team, if need be.
That is amazing.
Yeah, that is pretty cool.
I guess at what age or is someone expected to be in that kind of seven, eight class? What's your typical age of that class? It all depends.
I don't want to give you the answer.
It all depends on the kid, which is true.
But we see if kids are coming multiple days a week and they are working hard, you can see a six year old in that level.
We've also seen 10 year olds in that level.
I, we always think it's interesting when we see three year olds in level four, just because it's rare.
But it's also a testament to that kid's hard work because it's a lot of work to get to level four.
And we have about four four or five kids who are three years old in level four right now.
So it's testament to the parents getting them here and the kids working hard and the instructors.
But it can be done.
So every kid is different in that sense that like people's schedules are busy.
If you take two weeks off and you're going to see that, but yeah the levels sometimes correspond to age, but since it's based on skill it's a mixed bag.
We got some, I would say seven to 10 probably in there.
That is amazing.
That's awesome.
Are there lifeguards at the pool when swim lessons are going on? Here in Massachusetts, we have lifeguards at all times.
A lot of our instructors are certified lifeguards.
Me and my aquatics manager, we're LGI, so we can certify our lifeguards here.
But yeah, we have lifeguards always.
We also have deck supervisors who are present.
So there's usually a lot of people on the pool deck, which is good.
Yeah.
And how long are we expecting parents to be in the pool and what class are parents no longer in the pool doing that active piece with their kiddo? Level 3.
Level 3 is when the parents can get out of the water.
The good, another good thing about level 1 and level 2 is it doesn't have to be the same parent every time.
We encourage anyone who's going to be on that water safety journey, come take a class.
Grandma's in town for the week and she's going to have baby at the pool, come take a class.
You're gonna, you're gonna learn so much just in one that you should take that class.
But yeah, at 30 months we get parent or guardian out of the water.
And then it's just child with the instructor.
And then what's the ratio? Is it a one to one ratio or a one to two, three, four to one? So it's a four to one ratio.
So our classes are never more than four.
We have a really flexible makeup policy going back to that app.
A parent can cancel their own class for the day.
Oh, we're not going to make it.
We've got a doctor's appointment.
You can cancel up to an hour before it starts.
And then you automatically get a makeup and then you can schedule your own makeup.
So the makeups never go away.
So because of that flexibility.
One, it's great.
And two, it makes it so that sometimes there are less than four kids in the class and the class still runs.
So there are times where kids, it's only two kids in the class, they still get that 30 minute lesson.
They just get a little bit more individualized attention that day.
Which is pretty cool.
Awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's amazing.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
All right.
I think that maybe all of my questions.
Oh, no.
I do have more questions.
Sorry.
Okay.
Go for it.
No, go.
My first last question is, if we're not interested in having a little Michael Phelps and we just want our child to be able to swim appropriately.
So I was trained by the American Red Cross and we were always taught, in order to have a child that was good to swim, they need to get in the water.
Yeah.
Have a breath, be able to change position, be able to go underwater, be able to float and be able to swim across the pool.
Are those still the skills that parents want to make sure that their child is hitting in order to be considered a swimmer or what kind of things are we looking for? I guess is what I'm asking.
Great question.
We often get people saying like, when is my kid going to be independent? What do you consider independence number? So we, our recommendation here is we recommend for you to be safe and independent to get through level six.
But like I said, you do start to see some true independence at level four.
And so what leads up to level four? So I think your question is, what are the things you do to get that kid independent to level four? So you highlighted almost all of them.
I'm going to just, With a pitchfork breath control, right? Cause the reason for that is if a kid will put their face in, they're never going to be able to get horizontal in the water, right? Their head is up.
Their high knee is down.
It's just that simple.
They're going to be swimming uphill forever.
It's not effective.
So breath control being the big one, but just like you highlighted, similar to red cross YMCA, a bunch of different places, and you want to be comfortable with that front float, which involves putting our face in, want to be comfortable with that back float, which includes getting our chin way up.
You don't want kids sitting in a chair and that's because their chins on their chest.
So front float.
Submersions and that rollover, a big piece.
If you can find us, if you can find an aquatats, you'll have it built into the curriculum, but if not also try to find a place that does some wall work, right? Because most often when a kid falls in, they're right by the wall, but what happens is that way, push them one, one foot out further, like they fall in and that way push them further and they can't reach back and get it.
So you need to be at a place that really does focus on a little bit of wall work because it's not as simple as turn around to the wall.
You might have to do a little kicking.
You might have to do a little bit of propulsion with your feet to get you back up to that wall.
So I would add that as another piece that I think is super important.
Make sure you're at a place that's really focused on some safety skills too, because like you said, not everyone is training to be Michael Phelps and that's totally cool.
You can teach a kid to swim and also be very safe around water too.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Okay.
I don't think I asked you this and it was one of the most common questions that we got in our box from our audience.
When it comes to bathing suit colors, there's a lot of noise online about choosing, quote unquote, the right bathing suit color.
And I think there's that chart out there that people are really familiar with that some colors are harder than others.
So when parents are choosing bathing suits, or when you're getting your child, you're giving your child options on what bathing suit they want.
What are some things that we need to be considering in order to be safe and make sure that we actually can scan and pick up on our child? Yeah, and this is I see this reflected on socials all the time and I've seen the chart and I agree with it wholeheartedly, right? One that's important to know what pool you're going to be going to.
Here we have a pool.
Plaster based pool.
So when you're looking at our pool, it looks very clear, but the bottom is white.
So we're gonna avoid here a lot of the light colored swimsuits, the whites the muted yellows and things like that.
You might be at a pool with a liner.
Let's say that pool has a liner and that liner is very blue, right? You might wanna avoid blues in that same hue, but ultimately color is gonna be the most important thing.
Sometimes I like to encourage rash guards because.
It's extra color, right? What my parents say, does my kid have to be in a rash guard? Ultimately, it's comfort for some lessons.
I just want your kid to be comfortable.
If you're, if you put a lot of lotion on your kid, we might need you to put them in a rash because they might slip out of our hands.
Kids are the most lotion humans in the world.
But for a safety standpoint, rash guards are always a good call SPF obviously, but also because it's just more surface area that is covered in color, right? So a bright color, a bright orange, a very.
Neon yellow, bright green.
But something that it's not going to blend into the bottom of the pool.
And it's also important to just remember what suit you're wearing that day.
Like we live in a day and age where kids have a lot of different suits, right? So it's also, I know it sounds so simple, but Was my son in the yellow suit today? Was he in the blue suit? And just remembering which one you put them in.
That way, you know what you're looking for.
But those bright colors are huge and it's site specific.
A lot of pools, if you don't know the pool air aim, aim on the side of caution and just give a bright color.
We love bright oranges.
We love some reds.
We love bright yellows and greens.
But something that won't fade in or get washed away by the color of the pool or under a wave, but those charts are a good starting place.
Those are great resources.
I'm, I love it when things like that go viral, absolutely.
You can print that out.
You guys, you can print it out or take a screenshot on your phone and take it with you when you go shopping.
And my advice to you is just don't offer them the colors that you don't want them to have.
Just don't offer them the colors that you think are a little bit too risky for your family and pick colors that they can choose from and then let them choose what they want.
Tyler, this has been so incredible.
I think I've asked you all the questions and we've talked about all the things that are on my mind as, a former lifeguard and as someone who aims to educate parents on topics that are not always talked about.
Is there anything that you want to leave our audience with that maybe I didn't ask or yes, we should definitely cover that.
And there certainly doesn't have to be, but I always leave room for you to say yeah, we didn't even talk about this.
I have nothing left, honestly.
We covered everything I knew we were going to.
I thought we got into some good conversation that wasn't planned, which is awesome.
Love that.
No, we've really covered it all.
We talked a little bit about who we are at Aqua-Tots, which I think is awesome.
No, I feel good.
Thanks again for the opportunity.
I think this is really great that we can get the word out.
I think it's important.
It needs to be ever present on people's minds.
Yeah, absolutely.
I, like I say, I'm sorry to our audience that I've never covered this before.
I can't believe that has happened.
But I'm glad to be having this conversation now.
And I do think that it's super important.
This will obviously be an episode that we air over and over again every year to remind people on how we can prevent this very common, but preventable, definitely unexpected and unintentional death of our children, just to make our home a little safer.
This has been an awesome conversation.
So Tyler, if anyone wanted to connect with you or they wanted to visit the Aqua-Tots in Norwood, or maybe there's teachers out there listening and they want you to come in and do a, presentation for their children.
If people don't live in Mass and are looking for Aqua-Tots elsewhere, where can people connect with you, with your Aqua-Tots and then with Aqua-Tots in general? Yeah we are in Norwood, Massachusetts.
We are at 995 Boston Providence Highway right here on route one, in the auto mile.
We've been here for about two and a half years.
This is the first location for Aqua-Tots in the New England area, which is beautiful.
Aqua-Tots as a brand has been around since 91.
So if you're listening somewhere, you could probably find an Aqua-Tots near you Aqua-Tots serves more than 150 communities in 14 different countries.
So our curriculum has been translated into nine different languages.
So my best, your best bet is going to be to find an Aqua-Tots.
There's probably some near you or hopefully.
Decent driving distance.
So you could contact me personally.
I'm happy to respond to email Tyler dot Bradshaw at aqua dot com.
Reach out if you're in local and in this area and want us to come to a water safety presentation.
We are happy to do it.
We love it.
It's when I still sneak away to do them sometimes because it just fills my cup.
There's so much fun.
So as far as on a national level, aqua tots can be, W dot aqua.
Dash tots dot com.
Our location is aqua dash tots dot com slash Norwood.
But you should be able to find us online.
And I'm an easy guy to find too.
So if you can't find me via email, I'm sure you can find me on the website and find a way to get in touch with me.
Oh my goodness.
Thank you.
so much for being here.
You're welcome.
I really appreciate it.
All right, you guys.
Thanks for tuning in with Tyler and I.
I will see you in the next episode.
Be sure to follow Aqua Tots on social media and you can find me at Tranquility by HeHe or the.
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