How to Have a Safe Beach Vacation with Young Children
Just because your kids are young doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy a trip to the beach! There is so much fun little kids can have in the sand and in the water! However, there are also many different ways they could find themselves in trouble. To keep your trip fun, take a look at these tips on How to Have a Safe Beach Vacation with Young Children!
How to Have a Safe Beach Vacation with Young Children
1. Be Careful Around Water
While your kids can have a lot of fun in the water at the beach, the water can also be very dangerous. If your kids don’t know how to swim, put life vests on them (actual life vests, not arm floaties). If your kids kind of know how to swim, but aren’t really strong swimmers, still keep the life vests on. And always go into the water with them. A lot can happen in the ocean that can’t in a pool, including riptides and encountering dangerous aquatic animals. Also keep your kids from trying to dive headfirst into the water, especially murky, opaque water. And watch your kids in the shallow water, as even the small waves there are strong enough to push over little kids!
2. Practice Sun Safety
If you’re hoping to have a safe beach vacation with young children, you’ll want to make sure to be ready for the sun! Bring plenty of sun block, a beach umbrella, hats, and sunglasses. Also try to avoid going out to the beach at around 11-3 PM, when the sun will be strongest.
3. Be Careful Around Strangers
If your kids are little, they shouldn’t be wandering around the boardwalk on their own where they could get kidnapped. Neither should they be grouping up to play with other kids without you knowing about it. Make sure your kids have some basic stranger danger senses and keep watch over them in case you find them getting friendly with any teens or adults you don’t know.
4. Stay Hydrated
To have a safe beach vacation with young children, you’ll want to make sure everyone stays hydrated. If your kids for some reason want to drink the sea water, explain to them the difference between salt water and fresh water and hand them a water bottle instead. Also, make sure to have your kids take breaks every now and then to have a drink.
5. Watch Beach Safety Signals
One of the best ways to ensure you have a safe beach vacation with young children is to teach them to pay attention to and understand beach safety signals. This includes actual signage on the beach, and any instructions or whistle blows that lifeguards may use.
6. Learn the Beach
Before you even take your kids out on the sand, it’s a good idea to learn more about the beach you intend to have fun at! If possible, visit the beach without your kids. Talk to the lifeguards about the safest places to swim and the quietest places to set your umbrella. When you actually bring your kids onto the beach, look for broken bottles in the sand, little crab families, anything that might be possibly dangerous, then ensure you get rid of the danger or steer your kids away from it.
Remember, while the lifeguards are there to help out, it is your job to make sure they’re never needed in the first place! Prep your kids on water safety, stranger danger, etc. before leaving the house, and when on the beach keep watch over them the entire time!
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These are very important tips to follow when vacationing with young kids. I make sure to keep watch over our little ones all the time.
Yes my kiddo has been to the beach a few times already! Every single one of these tips is exactly right! The beach can be so busy you need to make sure you know where your child is at all times, and you need to be close to them because the current in the ocean can be very strong and a baby innocently sitting next to the water to be knocked over by a wave.
This is an awesome post – and so informative! These are great tips for children of every age! The beach is a fun place, but it can also be very scary! Things can happen in an instant. Thanks for these wonderful tips 🙂
These are important tips. I used to love taking my kids to the beach, but I was always careful near the water and had another adult with me at all times.
I love these tips!! It is so much fun to take little ones to the beach but being away of the dangers is important.
Sun safety is SO important, especially for little ones since their skin is so sensitive. Hydration is also key because that’s something everyone forgets about when they’re out having fun!
Going to the beach with my littles really stressed me out the first few times. It gets easier as they get older, but we need to make sure we don’t become complacent.
We’ve been blessed to have all of our young kid’s travel and experience the beach. We sure are fans! These are such great tips!
Always staying with your kids is such great advice, even with older ones! We were at a beach last year and we arrived just after they had pulled a 9 year old out. He was there with just a friend (no adults) and he didn’t make it. A friend of mine was part of the human chain that found him, it was absolutely tragic 🙁
I’ve never actually brought my girls to a good beach, but I plan to this summer. The beach in our town isn’t so great. They can play in the sand, just not the water. Sadly there is to much swimmers itch around here.
These are really good and useful tips! When I was a nanny we used to take the little ones to the beach all the time-it was a blast! But you definitely have to be extra vigilant and watch them so carefully-and sunscreen is a must!
While these are all great tips, staying hydrated is such an important thing. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard parents discuss their child getting sick because they didn’t hydrate them enough and really had no idea it was even an issue.
These are great tips for the beach. We always bring a tent so the kids can have some shade and we have a place for a nap.
These are great tips. I’m always a little apprehensive when we head to the beach each summer. We’re going next week, and my youngest is a much stronger swimmer now, but it still scares me.
These are excellent tips. I remember taking my daughter to the beach for the first time. We took a floatie for her and kept her close by.
These are great tips. That photo reminds me of th first time we brought our daughter in Florida for a vacation, she was 7 months old then,
These are really great tips. I was always so nervous taking my little kid’s to the beach. I think every parent would benefit from reading this list.
These are important tips! I used to love taking my son when he was little, to the beach, but I was always careful near the water and always keeping in mind that he couldn’t stay too long!
Totally agree with all your tips. My son have not gone to the beach in a long time. The last one was five years ago, I think, when we were still in the Philippines. Hope we get to go to the beach soon!
It’s so important to watch for all safety indicators when you have small children. All it takes is one slip for disaster to happen.
I’d love to take my kids to the beach. Perhaps later this summer!
I get so scared with my daughter. She is so fast and she loves the water – I am always like a paranoid mom when we on holiday.
Sun safety is so important to us! We burn easily, so sunscreen is a top priority for a day at the beach!