Summer is in full swing and Florida residents everywhere are dipping in some body of water to try to stay cool in this heat. Visit any beach, pool, or causeway, and you are sure to see a kid (or 100) using a very dangerous drowning hazard: water wings (also known as floaties).

Before you pull out the floaties the next time you’re going to hit the water, we urge you to consider the following:

Water Wings Slip Off. Water wings are not attached to the child’s body in any way, allowing them to slip off under certain conditions. Especially when we start mixing sunscreen with water, little arms become very slippery. Maybe you have been using them on your children for years and they have never slipped off. Can I tell you something? Just last week at a pool party, a 2 year old boy I know slipped out of his. The ending was thankfully a happy one, but it so easily could have gone the other way. It happens – water wings come off all of the time.

A former lifeguard shares, “I only had to jump off my lifeguard stand a few times. But most ALL of those saves were because a child slipped out of his water wings. In all cases, the parents were close to their child but distracted. The child had quickly and quietly slipped out of the floaties and was silently struggling under water.”

Water Wings Create Confidence in the Presence of Danger, for Both You and Your Child. You’ve heard it before – water wings create a false sense of security, and it is absolutely true. Most children who utilize water wings have been using them since their earliest days in the water. They don’t know anything other than when they jump in, they magically bob back up to the top. Many can’t differentiate their own ability to swim from the buoyancy of the floaties. All it takes is one time for them to get alone by a body of water, and in they go…without their water wings.

These water wings also create the false security with the parents. It lessens our best defense for water safety: being alert and constantly watching our kids in the water. Maybe you’ve heard someone say, “I just feel better when my child is wearing her floaties.” That is exactly the problem. It’s false confidence, please don’t fall for it.

Other reasons not to use swim floaties:

• Water wings can twist or shift, actually keeping a child’s face down in the water. As they limit the child’s range of motion, it can be difficult for a small child to get himself upright again. What looks like playing and splashing is actually a desperate attempt to get air.
• When working properly, the water wings force a vertical position which is the opposite of what is needed for a child to learn how to swim on their own. This creates bad habits that are difficult to re-teach.
• Water wings nearly always delay a child’s progress towards swimming on their own. From poor posture to false confidence, it is often more difficult to re-teach children who use water wings a healthy relationship with the water than those who do not.

There is no substitute for your child learning to swim. Children can absolutely learn to swim before they can walk. If you must use something in the interim before they are fully swimming on their own, we recommend a Coast-Guard approved flotation device that fits your child correctly. Use it as a temporary aid, not as a crutch to avoid teaching them the life-saving skill of swimming.

When we know better, we do better. Let’s reduce the risk of downing in our children by throwing out any dangerous water wings we have laying around TODAY.