We’ve heard the stories. A child wanders into the pool alone, and often times it leads to a dangerous, sometimes deadly, result.

“We’ve had children crawl through doggy doors, so we’ve seen a lot of things that don’t reflect on whether the parent was a good parent or not. Children are just fast so that’s the purpose of layers of protection,” says Child Advocacy Director Michele King of The Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida.

“Layers of protection” as King calls them, are various barriers that can keep your child from getting too close to the water without you knowing it. “The first thing you should do is have locks or alarms on any of the doors that lead to the pool area,” says King. Then, there’s the second layer. “You also want to have a four sided fence around the pool that has a self-locking, self-latching gate on it.”

King adds these layers can also act as safety guards in the event your child disappears. “It gives the parents time. If you turn around and your toddler is not there, check the pool first, if you have a pool or a body of water,” suggests King.

Many hardware stores have these pool safety devices. Protection that could safeguard your kids from potential harm.