Why it’s Important to Pay Attention to Your Kid’s Swimsuit Color in Minnesota

Once the warmer months are here, we Minnesotans love to spend as much time as possible on and in the water. That could be on a boat, in a pool, tubing, swimming in the lake, etc.

Something that I learned about water safety and swimsuit color a few years ago totally blew my mind. So I wanted to give you the scoop on it so we can keep all kids safe when in or around water.

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Before we get to swimsuit color safety, let's talk about another water safety hack I found called 'Water Watcher'.

Water Safety with Kids

Making sure kids stay safe when around water can take up your whole day by the water if you're truly keeping your eye on them. There's not a time to lay out and enjoy the sun, you can't read your book. So one safety tip that I found interesting was utilizing the 'Water Watcher' card.

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The 'Water Watcher' card is easiest when you're with other families. One adult wears the 'Water Watcher' card and does just that, watches the water.

That way, the other parents know the kids are taken care of and can have a good time. Then after a designated amount of time, someone else gets the roll of 'Water Watcher'.

I think this is a great idea so all of the parents get a chance to enjoy the day at the pool or beach. Water Watcher cards are available to print for free in many places online but the one I found is through Safe Kids Worldwide.

Swimsuit Color Safety

On top of the designated 'Water Watcher', it's so important to pay attention to the color of your kid's swimsuit. And I didn't realize how important until I saw some pictures on Facebook a few years ago.

A company called Alive Solutions did a test of different swimsuit colors as they got lower and lower in water. In the pictures, you can see just how difficult so many of the colors become to see the lower they get. It's so scary!

I first saw this test done by them in 2021 but they did an updated test with patters as well in 2023. Here are the results:

You can see that the best options for swimsuits are neon and other bright colors. The worst one in that test looks to be black. Other colors that are really bad for visibility include light blue and grey, especially if you're out on the lake.

Let me show you the lake test they did in 2021 so you can see what I mean.

It's so scary to see how quickly some of those colors just vanish! So now you can see why your kid's swimsuit color is so important for their safety.