Are Puddle Jumpers Safe?

I have four children, ages six, four, four, and two, and we live where pools are a common escape from the high summer heat. As a physician, I take swim safety very seriously, which is why when I witnessed my four-year-old daughter remove her Puddle Jumper without help, I came to realize just how dangerous these can be.

It is well documented that the safest measures parents can take to prevent drownings in their children is to teach them how to swim and as EARLY as possible. However swim lessons can be incredibly expensive and not always a convenient option for duel working parent households. As a result, many parents rely on items such as the Puddle Jumper to keep their kids safe while they swim. However, while in many ways they create a false sense of safety, they are also apparently easy to remove even if you are the tiny human wearing it.

Luckily my three oldest children know how to swim. However, on occasion towards the end of a full swim day, as my youngest daughter becomes more tired, she will selectively grab her old floaty and ask to wear it. A few months ago, one of these days occurred.

I was working with my two-year-old in the pool, and I had just put a Puddle Jumper on my four-year-old daughter. Just as quickly as my son and I were able to get back in the pool, (which was not even a minute later) I notice her Puddle Jumper had been removed.

When I asked her who took it off, she replied, “I did.” I. Was. Shocked.

When my initial shock wore off, I put it back on her to inspect it thoroughly. I ensured the fit was appropriately snug and tight (in fact it was as tight as it could be, perfectly fitting her tiny frame). I then confirmed that her 35 pound body weight was appropriate for this Puddle Jumper (on it's inside is written: recommended for children 30 to 50 pounds). Lastly I asked her to show me how she took it off (as seen above). She did, and it took her:

20 seconds. 20 SECONDS.

Instantly I thought about all the 20 seconds, even 30 second-long type-of distractions which commonly occur around any pool. I compiled a short list:

1. One of the kids needs help putting their goggles on for the umpteenth time.
2. You get a text message and read it.
3. You respond to a text message.
4. One of the kids has been caught running around the pool deck one too many times and you have a gentle face-to-face conversation to review the pool rules.
5. If you are like my husband, you see a patch of weeds in the grass around the pool deck and you pull them.

All of these distractions can easily take 20 seconds or more away from diligent pool scanning and in that short period of time any parent can go from having a child whom they believe is water safe to NOT water safe. Those are twenty very precious seconds.

While I have always known one of the ways which Puddle Jumpers create a false sense of safety relates to the positioning it teaches children to swim (more vertical than horizontal), this new development however, highlighted another potential fatal risk: the ease in which one can be removed by the child wearing them.

I ended up taking a video of her doing this and sent it to a few physician colleagues of mine, and they too were just as shocked. I think the shock initially came from the realization that for years my children have worn Puddle Jumpers while swimming and I never considered for a moment, even in the smallest of measurements, at their young ages, they could free themselves from them. This, of course, reinforces the importance of minimizing distraction in the pool area, which in our home means: no phones, food, or pulling of weeds around the pool, reviewing the swimming rules with EACH swim session and trying as much as possible to keep the children: adult ratio to a maximum of two to one.

Pools are a great way to beat the heat however swim safety can never be taken too seriously. Making sure your children are wearing appropriate safety items (such as life jackets approved by the United States Coast Guard—we have since switched to Speedos Splash Vest) which cannot be removed independently by the child wearing it and minimizing distractions around the pool are incumbent to keeping your children water safe.