The colour of your child’s swimsuit matters. According to the swimsuit colour chart, when it comes to your child’s safety in and around water, bright, neon-coloured bathers and rashies are best when swimming in any body of water.
An aquatic safety group has put swimsuits of different colours to the test in both a lake and a pool to see which ones offer the most visibility underwater.
While the testing occurred in America, it’s still incredibly relevant here and something every parent should know about. After all, keeping our kids safe around the water is so important. And, as it turns out, the colour of their swimsuit and/or rashie can play a pivotal role in this.
Swimsuit colour chart test
ALIVE Solutions Inc. tested 14 different coloured swimsuits, ranging from bright red to white. They included various hues and neon tones as well, including bright orange, yellow and green as well as neutral blues, grey and black.
The company performed the swimsuit test both in a lake and a white-bottomed pool. They submerged the suits under 45cm of water and then photographed their visibility as a way to demonstrate how easily parents can see their children when swimming underwater in the various swimsuit colours.
We placed each colour on the surface (first row images), second row images were from shore level perspective, and third row are from a slightly elevated perspective — simulating standing on a boat/dock view,” ALIVE Solutions explains.
The results
In the lake test, as shown in the image above, most of the swimsuits completely disappeared underwater.
The only ones you can really see? Orange and Yellow. Pink and Green are only visible in the second image. Scary!
In the pool test (image above), ALIVE Solutions compared photos of the swimsuit underwater and what it looks like when the child was kicking or struggling.
While all of the suits are visible underwater, some are a lot clearer than others. Again, the brighter colours seemed to be more visible. Blue, white and grey were the least visible while orange and pink stood out best.
Our top choices would be neon pink and neon orange,” ALIVE Solutions explained. “Although the darker colours show up on a light pool bottom they can often be dismissed for a pile of leaves, dirt, or a shadow so I tend to stay away from those colours when possible.”
If you are looking for new togs for the kids this year, this swimsuit colour chart is important to keep in mind.
However, swim safety starts with constant and adequate supervision – regardless of what colour they are wearing. Always, always, always supervise your kids around water, whether it’s creeks, pools, oceans or lakes.
