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 Kinds love to splash about, to dig in the sand, to race against the waves. So many reasons why children love to spend their holidays by the seaside, and preferably the beautiful Mediterranean. Even so, the normally calm Med has risks that parents should be aware of. For a safe and sound seaside holiday, stick to the following rules:
Only swim at supervised beaches
As opposed those in other Mediterranean countries, most beaches in Italy are guarded by a lifeguard, the "bagnino di salvataggio".
When you’ve got children you can only be confident by the water’s edge if you know the beach is guarded. Furthermore, on almost all beaches you will see there is a flag: this shows whether at that spot at that time it is safe to go swimming or not. A red flag means “stay out of water for the moment”, yellow means “be particularly careful in the water”, while green tells you the bathing conditions are ideal.
Unseen dangers in sea water
Even where the weather conditions do allow for bathing, there are other risks which children cannot understand or foresee, such as currents that can pull them out to sea. So they do need someone, in particular an adult, to be supervising them.
You should speak quietly and in a serious tone of voice to your younger children and explain to them that they always need to have someone watching them when they go swimming. Older ones should at a minimum let their parents know when they are going for a swim.
Be particularly careful with floats.
They can carry your child away from the shore - please supervise your children when they swim with floats and make sure they stay in shallow waters.
Keep a close watch over babies and toddlers
Even shallow waters can be potentially dangerous for babies and toddlers: that’s because at this age the head is still the heaviest part of their body. This weight imbalance, coupled with a possible shock reaction, can be enough to cause a four-year-old to drown, even in shallow waters. So you should take care to be watching over your toddlers and small children all the time! Those Italy Family Hotels who have their own beaches have secure beach areas where the kids cannot reach the shore without being noticed.
Learning to swim is safer
One excellent preparation for beach holidays is a swimming course. Proper swimming lessons make sense for four-year-olds and older children. Salty sea water makes it easier for the child to float and they’ll definitely find it a lot of fun to improve their swimming abilities while on holiday. For younger children there are several baby swimming courses as well as early water experience classes offered by different swimming pools and organisations all over Britain. Through these lessons children get used to water and can be trusted more in the “wet element” once you’re on holiday.
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