A swim instructor has taken to social media to warn against buying a certain color of bathing suits.
Prepare for an education:
If you even bothered wearing a swimsuit when you were younger - in the good old days where no one batted an eyelid if you bombed into the pool butt-naked, why bother? - you probably chose one with a funky pattern or your favorite animal on it.
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However, there's one color of swimsuit you may have been putting yourself at risk by wearing.
Certified ISR Swim Instructor and Water Safety and Drowning Advocate Nikki Scarnati has taken to Instagram to educate people about what color swimsuit can be unsafe to buy for kids.
Scarnati demonstrates the safety risk with a video of her daughter swimming in a blue bathing suit in a pool.
The instructor explains: "So this is not a swimsuit my daughter wears on a regular basis, I bought it on clearance, specifically for this example for parents who want to learn.
"This is why you do not put your children in blue bathing suits. Look how difficult it is to see her under the water and this is in calm water, this is not with a whole bunch of other kids, playing and splashing around and having a good time.
"Even in the sunlight, look how difficult it is to see her with that bathing suit on because it's the same color as our environment. So do not buy blue bathing suits guys."
Parents and childminders have been quick to leap to the comments in gratitude to the instructor.
One Instagram user said: "Oh s**t! I usually buy bright ones for my kid because we love bright colors. But now I’ll be conscious to avoid blue for him."
Another wrote: "NEVER would have thought of this. Thank you so so much for this information. We'll never buy our kiddos blue suits ever again."
Others were quick to back the mum up: "As a lifeguard, this is 100 percent true. We cannot see kids under the water in blue bathing suits - especially if they were at the bottom of the pool in need of rescue. Always opt for the brightest swim suits, especially for young kids or weak swimmers!"
"People are commenting they don't need to know this if they have darker skin tones and as a artist and someone who observes light and shadow a lot - your darker skin can look just as much like any old water shadow (in blues) under water as a lighter shade skin tones can just look like light (not human bodies!) so I would still encourage all melatonin to wear the vibrant colors and put it on your kids - a pool depth of 6' or more can distort what you see when there is waves/ splashing/ more people in and light/ shadows will always blend more then stand out," another added.
A final joked: "The internet just keeps giving me reasons to stay child free bc holy s**t is this hard. I never would’ve thought of this."
Topics: Fashion, Health, Instagram, Social Media, Parenting
Poppy Bilderbeck