Danger in Disguise: Why Kids Shouldn’t Match Their Suits to This

With Texas summer in full gear - parents are working harder than ever to ensure their child's safety. El Paso has a ton of awesome public water parks and splash pads that the kids can enjoy until school starts back up, but tragedy can strike faster in the water than on land, so it brings up a swarm of new anxieties in parents.

A good way to curb the parental anxiety is by using preventative measures. For example: put floaties or a life jacket on your child to lessen the chances of a drowning accident happening. That one is pretty simple and straightforward.

According to the CDC, Texas has one of the highest drowning rates in the United States. Drowning is the leading cause of accidental death for children aged 1 to 4 in the Lone Star State.

Just recently a TikTok trend caught my attention that honestly, I had never thought of before (and I'm two little kids in). It has to do with what color swimsuit you put your child in. It came with some great advice for parents.

@scarnati.swim Just dont do it! Why think about which bathing suits for the splash pad? Just buy bright ones!! ☀️☀️ #selfrescue #selfrescueswimming #selfrescueswim #watersafety #drowningpreventionawareness #springhillisd ♬ original sound - Nikki Scarnati

Don't match your child's swimsuit to the water!

Alive Solutions, a company that specializes in aquatic safety, did an active study and put 14 swimsuits in a wide variety of colors to the test.

Just like brightly colored outfits can help you find your kids in a crowd, test results that Alive Solutions found proved that bright, neon colors, including bright orange, yellow and green, were crucial in spotting a child in a pool or any other body of water.

Popular swimsuit colors, such as blues and greens, almost completely disappeared. The biggest losers were white and light blue. Avoid those at all costs.

Test results also showed:

• In pools with a dark bottom, white looked light blue and was easy to see close up, but the farther away you moved the quicker it disappeared

• Dark colors or matching colors to the water disappeared quickly in pools with a dark bottom

• Dark colors showed up better on pools with light bottoms, but they can be mistaken for a pile of leaves, dirt or shadow

• Neon pink performed well in pools, but not in lakes