Paddling pool safety: 5 tips to keep your children safe in the garden this summer

Summer is finally here and many across the country are starting to enjoy warmer weather and longer days. The May half term break will mean many will be looking at ways to keep their children entertained, including a cheap way to entertain them in your own garden.

Paddling pools are a great way to keep children in the great outdoors with a fun activity to keep them entertained for hours. However, what can seem like a fun activity could have devastating consequences.

According to Lois Lee, an emergency-medicine specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital, young children can drown silently in as little as 25 seconds, even in a shallow pool. Durann Letter, who founded Water Watchers at Phoenix Children’s Hospital after her son Weston drowned, aged three, said “most children drown because their parents turn their head for just a second or have no idea that their child is even near the pool.”

Although splashing around in a paddling pool is a great way to keep your children cool, even two centimetres  of water can pose a deadly risk to a child, warns the