Don’t take risks with your child’s safety on the water: choose a type I life jacket

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – With lake weather on the horizon, Barren River District Health Department is reminding all parents to make sure your child has the right life jacket.

The health department recommends all kids and adults type I life jacket meant for off-shore swimming outside of pools.

This life jacket will flips wearers over on their backs and cushions their heads above the water.

The health department especially cautions parents not to interchange puddle jumpers or life preservers for Type I life jackets.

Children under 12 years old are required by law to wear life jackets when boating. However, the health department recommends wearing them around ponds, on the bank fishing, and all other bodies of water.

BRDHD Childcare Health Consultant Jeanna Phelps said, “We have a lot of fatalities, unfortunately, during the year where even adults that are perfectly able to swim are on a bank fishing at a river, and they slide in and the currents and the riptides take them under. And even though they know  how to swim, they don’t have a life jacket on and they drown.”

To check if a life jacket fits, raise your arms and ensure the chest portion of the jacket does not touch your chin if you turn left to right. If it does, try another size.