Summer Safety for Kids: The Crucial & Unexpected Tips and Fact

Summer Safety for Kids: The Crucial & Unexpected Tips and Fact

Find a babysitter or babysitting job, or stay up to date with the latest childcare tips!

Get started today for free.

Get started
By Babysits
11 min read

Top tips for summer with kids; how to be safe in the sun, at the seaside or at the pool and most of all have fun this summer!

Summer is upon us: sunny days, warm breezes, and relaxing holidays by the pool. With all the excitement this season brings, it can be easy to get swept up in all the fun and forget about its dangers and the safety measures needed to avoid them. Unfortunately, the warm summer days can also bring major risks with them, including: drowning, sunburns or diseases brought on by the heat, and other summer or travel-related risks such as food poisoning, allergic reactions, or getting lost.
This article will give you the most crucial tips, as well as some unexpected ones, that you need to consider in order to have the safest and most fun summer with your kids!

Water Safety Tips

Why is Water Safety Important?

A backyard pool promises endless summer fun, but it also comes with the responsibility of keeping fearless little ones out of harm's way. This is how we can all work together to help prevent water-related accidents.

The Most Crucial Water Safety Tips for Kids

5 Water Survival Skills your Child Should Know

Teaching your kid some basic survival skills can help save their life. You can also make a game out of it, it could help them remember these tips if they should ever need them!

Here are 5 things you can teach your child to make your beach or pool day safer and more fun for everyone.

Keep calm and float

It doesn’t matter how big or small the body of water is, teach your kids to keep calm and float on their back if they are ever in trouble. Waving, screaming, and moving around can make them waste precious energy and might lead to drowning.

Look before jumping in

Whether it’s a lake, a river, the sea, or a pool, teach your kids to always be aware of their surroundings. It’s easy to miscalculate the depth of a body of water or, if the water is muddy, get hurt because you can’t see the bottom.

Look out for others

Teach your child to look out for other kids, especially younger ones. They should never go after someone in danger by themselves, but instead scream for help and get the attention of an adult.

Exit from the water without using a ladder - Grab side

Knowing how to safely exit a pool without steps or a ladder is an important skill you should definitely show your kid. It is also called the elbow elbow, knee knee.

  1. Have your kid grab onto the wall with two hands
  2. Put the first elbow on top of the edge of the pool
  3. Bring their other elbow up on the edge
  4. Pull their body up so that their tummy is laying on the edge of the pool
  5. Have them put their knee on the ledge and push up to a safe exit of the pool

Remember that this skill just works for pools as the kid can grab the side.

Grabbing the side is also a thing you should definitely teach your kids. Teaching this action can help the kids struggling in the water to find the nearest exit. Even in a pool, your kid can easily get disoriented and panic, it is therefore important to explain how to search for the side of the pool and grab it easily and calmly.

A backyard pool doesn’t mean guaranteed safety

Even if you have a pool at home, it’s important to follow the rules and never leave your kids unsupervised. A familiar setting might lower your and your child’s guard, and might be therefore more dangerous than any other setting.

Water safety tips for kids

Water Safety Tips you May Not be Familiar With

Tie your hair

While swimming is one of the activities we most look forward to this season, it can be one of the most dangerous. In fact pool filters can be very dangerous. That's why it is important to tie the hair of your kids or it could get stuck in it.

Check Pool Filters

Always check the filters of the pool to see how strong the vacuum power is, before you let the kids swim in the pool. There have been several accidents where children got stuck in the filter, because of the strength of the filter’s vacuum.

Swimming Buddies

Never let children swim alone, always designate swimming buddies before visiting the beach or the pool. Having a swim buddy can make your child experience much safer and more fun, especially in open water! If your child can’t find a buddy make sure to stay close to the beach or swim near the lifeguard post.
*Water Safety Fact: Riptides are powerful currents that flow away from shore. If you are caught in a riptide, don't try to swim against it. Instead, swim parallel to the shore until you are out of the current.

Sun Safety for Kids Tips

Why is Sun Safety Important?

During the summer months, outdoor activities are in full swing and sun exposure is at its maximum. It's therefore important to teach children that a healthy and safe summer starts with protecting their skin! Exposing yourself to the sun without proper precautions can increase the risk of skin cancer, damage the skin and eyes, as well as weaken the immune system. This is not something kids ever consider before running outside to play, so we are here to help ensure you are fully informed on how to best protect them and avoid such consequences.

The Most Crucial Sun Safety Tips for Kids

Applying Sunscreen

Staying in the sun too long can lead to sunburn and even skin cancer. It is important to take steps, such as using sunscreen, to protect yourself and your family from the sun's harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays.

How to apply sunscreen correctly
how to apply sunscream

*Sun Safety Fact: Even if the sky seems to be cloudy or overcast, it does not mean that the sun’s UV rays are completely blocked and cannot harm us. Apply sunscreen regardless.

Finding Shade

Avoid being outside during the hottest moments of the day. If you are already outside, find the nearest shade or consider diverting to an indoor activity such as grabbing a cool drink or some fruit to cool off and gain the energy you need to handle the heat. Check out this article for some activities you can do inside while you wait for the hottest hours of the day to pass!

Wearing Sunglasses

Did you know that the sun can harm your eyes too? Sun damage to the eyes can result in a damaged cornea and, later in life, cataracts. Wearing sunglasses with 100 percent UV protection is the best approach to protect your children and yourself from the dangers.

Allow the children to choose their own set of sunglasses so that they’re more likely to wear them at all times. Maybe they’ll choose a pair with their favorite cartoon characters, multicolored frames, or a cool shape!

Never leave kids in a car

Never leave your child unattended in the car, even for a moment. If you have to leave your car for any reason, always take your child with you. Heat is the main risk for children left unattended in cars. Children can suffer life-threatening heatstroke, rapid dehydration, suffocation and death.
This is because cars can get very hot very quickly. In fact, when cars are parked, it takes less than 5 minutes for them to heat to temperatures that can seriously harm children.

Sun Safety Tips you May not Be Familiar With

1. Skin Monitoring

It’s important to get to know your kids’ skin so you know what’s normal, and regularly check it for any new spots or irregularities.
Any changes to the skin should be checked by your pediatrician or GP. For further advice on how to best check skin for skin cancer, visit this website here.

2. Wear Sun Smart Clothing

Wearing clothing to protect your child’s skin from the sun is really important. Sun-protective clothing is exactly what it says on the label – it provides a barrier between you and the sun. It’s specifically designed and produced from a fabric that is rated for its level of UV protection and there are many types of lightweight sun-protective clothing available, with various levels of UPF protection.
To check whether your kids’ clothes are adequate, place your hand inside the clothes and make sure you can’t see through it.

The best sun protection for babies is shade; they have thinner skin than adults and therefore have underdeveloped melanin levels, so their skin burns more easily. Keep your baby out of the sun whenever possible and, if you can’t avoid sun rays, make sure they are wearing adequate sun protective clothing and a hat. It is important to know that not all parasols have UV protection. So even if your kids are in the shade, they can still get burned.

What to do if your child gets sunburnt/heat stroke?

kids sunstroke heatstroke sunburn what to do

3. The Dangerous Stroller Mistake

Have you ever tried to block the sun from hitting your baby's stroller by covering it with a blanket or cloth? As it turns out, by trying to keep our little ones in the shade, we may actually be doing them more harm than good. In fact, Even the thinnest of covers can reduce the air circulation and raise the temperature inside the stroller to dangerous levels !

4. Beware of burn hazard

Some equipment on playgrounds can get very hot and burn a child's skin. Children burn more easily than adults. Always check that the equipment is safe even in cooler weather before letting your children play on the playground. You can touch the playground equipment to make sure the temperature is safe for your children

Traveling Safe with Kids

Why is Travel Safety with Kids Important

Traveling with kids might seem complicated: whether by train, bus, or plane, long trips are hardly ever comfortable, not to mention how expensive a family vacation might be! Despite this, discovering the world is an incredibly enriching experience for young kids, which can help them grow significantly. Here are 5 tips to help you keep your family safe and everyone having a good time.

safe travel tips with kids

1. Don't forget the first aid kit and the health booklets

No need to take the booklet but a photocopy of the vaccines page, you never know if your kid gets cut with a rusty nail, you will be glad to check when his tetanus vaccine was given...
As for the first aid kit, with children, it is essential!

2. Teach children important identifying information

As young as possible, teach your children their full name, mom’s full name or the person of reference and cell phone number. For children too young to memorize you can obtain bracelets or temporary tattoos with important information to be used on outings.

3. Always use travel seats for children

You can fly, but that doesn't mean your little one doesn't need a safety seat to sit in. Children under the age of two can sit on your lap, but they must have a safety restraint. Of course, when traveling by car, children should always be belted in their proper seats.

4. Be careful with food and hygiene

In order to avoid diseases or allergies, try to eat only cooked products whenever possible.
If you don’t want to end up with a sick child on your trip, that won't be fun. So take wet wipes and hand sanitizer with you and use them frequently. Whenever possible, make sure your children wash their hands before meals and after leaving stores, etc.

5. Make a Plan If the Family Gets Separated

Whenever you plan to go for a long vacation with your children, make sure to always have a plan B. There might come times when you would have to stop at different crowded destinations, and that’s when there are high chances of risk. This will help your family have a safe trip.


Now that you know how to stay safe this summer with the family, check out all the ways you can have fun this summer with our activities, diys, and kids recipes!

Join the Babysitting Community!

Sign up for free