Bath safety
Learn how to keep your child safe in the bathtub and properly use bath seats.
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Bathtub safety
Bathtub drowning can occur within seconds, without a sound and in only a few centimetres (1 inch) of water.
Hot tap water can burn your child in seconds. A child’s skin burns in a quarter of the time it takes an adult's skin to burn.
To keep your child safe in the bathtub, remember to always:
- have your child sit up in the bathtub
- keep your child in sight and in reach at all times
- start and end with cold water when running a bath
- test the water temperature with your elbow before putting a child in the bath
If you must leave the bathroom, even for a few seconds, take your child with you.
Bath seats
Never rely on a bath seat to ensure the safety of your baby in a bath tub.
The use of infant bath seats and bath rings has been linked to the drowning death of infants in Canada. Drowning has occurred when:
- babies:
- were out of their caregiver's sight and reach for only seconds
- have climbed out of the bath seat
- have slipped through the leg openings
- the suction cups on the bath seat came loose and the bath seat tipped over