Is It Safe to Go in the Water? Understanding Waterborne Illnesses

For All Swimmers

To promote healthy swimming, practice these tips:

• Please don't swim when you have diarrhea. This is especially important for kids in diapers. Swimming with diarrhea can spread the germs into the water and make other people sick.

• Please don't swallow the pool water. Try your best to avoid even having water get in your mouth.

• Please wash your hands with soap and water after using the toilet or after changing diapers. You can protect others by being aware that germs on your body end up in the water.

For Parents with Young Kids

• Please take your kids on bathroom breaks often. Waiting to hear "I have to go" may mean that it's too late.

• Please change diapers in a bathroom and not poolside. Germs can spread to surfaces and objects in and around the pool and spread illness.

• Please wash your child thoroughly (especially the rear end) with soap and water before swimming. We all have invisible amounts of fecal matter on our bottoms that end up in the pool.

This information was printed with permission from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.