CLEVELAND — Community pools are getting ready to open, and I bet you and your kids are excited to spend the summer swimming. But with water activities comes the fear of a drowning accident. Every year, there are 4,000 fatal drownings in the U.S., and most of those are toddlers.
One of the best things you can do for your child is teach them how to swim.
In today's Mom Squad, we go on location and get hands on lessons from Leah Morris, owner of Liquid Lifestyles, who explains the first step to take if you're not a swimmer.
“It's not the legs that are scary going into water, it's not the arms going in the water, that cause of fear is the face. It's having water over your eyes and water on your cheeks,” said Morris. “We need to concentrate on the shoulders up, because learning how to swim requires that the face is underwater. It requires that they're comfortable being able to take a breath, holding their breath or doing their nose bubbles beneath the surface.”
In this full episode, Morris shows us the simple exercises you can do with your own child while in the pool this summer. She also chimes in on the debate: Do you put your kid in floaties or not? Spoiler alert: It's hurting your child's ability to swim.
You can find the full episode of Mom Squad on Roku or Fire TV. If you don't have either of those, you can find it on the WKYC YouTube page or in the media player below.
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