Central Florida Green Guide

Summer is here and you are eagerly planning your first pool party of the season.  The decorations are up, the pool is perfect, the potato salad has been prepared and you have found the perfect bathing suit.  The kids can’t wait for their friends to join them for games of Marco Polo and splashing big sister.  You are ready!  Or are you?

Whether you plan to spend long, lazy afternoons at the pool or to travel with the family on a dream vacation, dealing with accidents and emergencies is probably the furthest thing from your mind.  When it comes to safety, it is always best to be prepared. 

Summer fun can be interrupted in a second with a sunburn, a skinned knee or worse.  Here are some quick tips to help you get prepared to have a safe summer:

Take a CPR and a Basic First Aid class.  Even if you’ve taken one before, studies show that your skills become rusty after a year has passed.   If you are a pool owner, it is especially important to make sure that you would be able to perform CPR in case of a drowning emergency.  Taking a class will ensure that you can react calmly and quickly in an emergency when seconds count.  

Check out your first aid kit and buy a Basic First Aid manual.  If you don’t have a first aid kit, buy or make one!  If you do have one, make sure that you have replaced any used supplies.  You may want to consider having multiple kits.  It is a good idea to have a kit for your car, diaper bag, pool, and house.

Keep some basic natural ingredients on hand to enhance your first aid kit.  Honey heals minor scrapes and wounds, aloe vera soothes burns.  Used tea bags can be patted against a sunburn for instant relief (remove from boiling water and allow to cool thoroughly before using!).   Mix a few capsules of Vitamin E (use a pin or needle to puncture the capsule, then squeeze out into a container) with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, rub gently over dry, sunburned skin and you’ll have a very effective burn reliever.

Establish and enforce pool rules.   Post your rules on a piece of poster board and go over them with everyone who is going to be near the pool.  Make sure that everyone understands the rules by asking each swimmer to restate them to you. Always designate a responsible, non-drinking adult to supervise swimmers.  

While an accident free summer may not be possible, taking these simple precautions and steps to being prepared will help you maintain your cool and give you the ability to act quickly to handle the unexpected.