If you take your children to a UK beach this year, will they paddle?

[AnneBerlin]

I am looking forward to taking my toddlers to the seaside when the weather warms up. But all this news about sewage is making me feel quite sick at the thought of going near the sea! I know it's probably been going on to some extent for years, but I didn't know about it before and the thought makes a paddle in the sea seem so off-putting. Are other people feeling the same, or am I overthinking??

I use the Safer Seas and Rivers app, it's free to download and it tells you whether the beach you are using is safe.

Read your title and thought it was going to be a behavioural question. Turns out it’s a hygiene/safety one.

I live in a part of the country where it’s particularly rife and it’s never crossed my mind, just avoid the areas adjacent to the outlets or use a different beach.

Had the question been about the first scenario, the answer would have been one might do (he did last summer a couple of times) the other I doubt as he wouldn’t go near the waters edge!!

Got the app the pp said. Guess it depends where in the UK you're going. We're always Llandudno direction and yes, they'll have a paddle up to knees

We went to the east coast this weekend gone and me and D's 4 were paddling (absolutely freezing!), Didn't give it any thought.

What does the key mean and why does so much of Scotland have no coverage at all? Assume green good, red bad, grey not great? But what about all the blank space?

OP yes it's never crossed my mind to not let dc paddle unless it's been in the news about a specific issue

Does the app cover NI? Before I download it thanks

We usually go up to the North Devon beaches in the summer & yes, we'll be paddling & swimming if it's warm enough.
The app mentioned is very useful.

@liveforsummer it's because the data will be different for Scotland - different water company structure and regulators. Ditto northern ireland.

Tbh, it’s more likely to be the temperature of the water or his fear of the waves that puts my toddler off paddling. The water quality probably wouldn’t factor into it much. Although looking at the safer seas app, there’s only one problematic beach near me.

That's why I was wondering about the key as if my assumption was correct it wouldn't make sense why only the grey ones are present.

I've just looked at the app. There's no Scottish data at the moment for technical reasons. The grey is for lack of data due to being out of season and all of Scotland has that because they've not been able to use data due to cyber attack detailed in my image.

Wouldn’t you look at the notices in the place you’d gone to, to see what the recommendations were, before paddling or swimming?

I live in an area where th beaches are all green so don't worry about it - I would in red areas.

Toddlers have skin, it keeps the germs out. Try to keep their heads out of the water, they’ll be fine.