Summer Child Safety Tips Experts Want Parents to Know

Young children love testing out their skills on scooters, trikes, and ride-ons during the summer months, and Long says wearing a helmet can’t be emphasized enough. Start your child wearing a helmet early for safety: A study from the Consumer Product Safety Commission and Nationwide Children’s Hospital reports that over 140,000 children visit the ER every year for bike-related injuries.

Parents can keep kids safe by designating specific areas where they can ride (sidewalks can pose safety hazards, too), checking their helmets before each ride, and ensuring bikes and scooters are easy to stop and equipped with reflectors. Remember to check your child’s helmet each year to ensure it fits properly. “Kids grow. Last year’s helmet may not fit, and an ill-fitting helmet barely works,” Long says. A properly fitted helmet reduces the risk of head injury by up to 88%, according to research, but data suggests only about 42% of kids always wear a helmet when riding.

Phones and water don’t mix. Long says a child can drown in the time it takes to send a text. “I’m not shaming anyone—phones are designed to capture our attention,” she says. “The rule in my house: phone goes away during bath time, pool time, and any time a car is moving in the driveway. Not ‘checked less’ away.”

Be mindful of children during transition periods. Long calls these “shoulder” moments, when you’re just arriving or leaving a pool or beach, and in the distraction of getting settled or getting ready to leave, something unexpected can happen. According to the Red Cross, nearly 7 out of 10 children who drown in pools were never expected to be in the water at all. “They wandered out after everyone had finished swimming, or before anyone had started,” Long says. “A floating pool toy is the single most common reason a child sneaks back in alone.”

Don’t rely on a floatie. Parents might think responsibility around water means ensuring their young child has a floatie or puddle jumper on at all times. But Long warns these aren’t all the same. “Swimmies, water wings, and inflatables are toys, not life jackets. They actually teach the wrong swim posture—vertical, head up—which is a sinking position the moment they come off, and they give the child a very false confidence about water,” she says. “The CDC explicitly says: do not rely on air-filled or foam toys.”

Layered water safety precautions save lives. The most proactive approach to water safety is what Long calls a “layered model”—not relying on just one water safety measure, but several, layered precautions. “There is no single intervention that prevents drowning. It’s the layers that save lives.” These layers can include swim lessons. “Formal swim lessons reduce drowning risk in 1- to 4-year-olds by 88 percent. The goal isn’t Olympic strokes—it’s self-rescue: roll onto the back, float, get to the wall,” she says. Another layer is putting a four-sided fence around water, which reduces drowning risk by 83 percent, she shares. Perhaps the simplest water safety tip: Choose brightly colored swimsuits for better child visibility in the water.

The key to prevention is layering strategic reminders: Store your purse or bag in the back seat so that you’re in the habit of physically checking the back every time you get out. Put your child’s backpack in the front passenger seat next to you. Set a reminder on your phone. Some cars come with detection devices to alert you when someone is still in a seat, but don’t rely on them working every time. And never leave a child unattended in a car. 

Keep children out of parked vehicles. “A surprising number of hot car tragedies involve children who climbed into an unlocked car in the driveway and couldn’t get out,” Long says. “Lock your cars and put keys out of reach, even at home.” Remind older children not to play in or around the car, whether it’s parked in the garage or driveway.

Prevent backover accidents: Every year, hundreds of children are killed and thousands are injured by drivers backing up who don’t see what’s behind their vehicles. Sadly, many of these backover accidents happen at home and involve a family member or caregiver. “I have a 2-year-old, and every single time I move my car, I make sure that he’s either in the car with me, or another adult is holding him,” Long says. CR’s safety experts recommend cars with automatic detection and warning systems built in to help prevent these tragedies (and CR advocates for such features to come standard with all vehicles). But don’t rely on your car’s backup camera alone: Check around your vehicle before getting in, and back out slowly with eyes on your mirrors and environment as well as your backup camera. And again, remind kids not to play in or around the car. 

Finally, before strapping in for that summer road trip, be sure to check your child’s car seat for proper installation and fit, and beware of burn risks from hot car seat buckles left in the sun.

Some of the safety risks associated with summertime might not be the ones parents would expect. For example, about 5,600 children under 12 were treated for falls from windows in 2024, according to the CPSC, and these types of accidents tend to peak in summer, “when we’re opening windows for ventilation, according to the AAP,” Dr. Long says. To keep young children safe during the season of peak window-fall injuries, Seattle Children’s Hospital recommends opening windows from the top down if possible, and/or opening windows four inches or less; keeping furniture that children might climb onto away from windows; and installing safety guards and/or stops on windows more than 6 feet from the ground outside. Remember that window screens aren’t typically strong enough to prevent a child from falling. 

Finally, Long recommends a “CPR and choking refresher for every adult in your child’s life. American Red Cross or American Heart Association—in person if you can. What happens in the three minutes before EMS arrives is often what determines the outcome.”