There is a reason my wife never joins us in swimming in the swimming pool of the condominium. She believes the chlorine in the pool is very bad. In fact she noticed that it seems our children get colds after swimming in the pool, but not when swimming in the beach. Especially our 5 year old girl.
I decided to test this theory once and for all. Last Wednesday the 3 children were asking for a swim in the midst of the heat of the summer afternoon. Sure I said. Just 20 minutes. So they swam around 5:40 pm to 6pm.
Sure enough the following day Thursday, our 7 year old boy and our 5 year old girl had the beginnings of a cold. On Friday morning, their colds were terrible. Still terrible Saturday and Sunday. Monday the 2 children were not allowed to go to school. Just the eldest, the 8 year old boy went to school.
We are doing the usual thing. Cayenne tincture, fresh oregano juicing, mercurius vivus, raw paleo diet, cough elixir. Starting to subside Monday afternoon. All of them will probably be able to go to school Tuesday.
Lesson learned. Swimming pool asthma is real. Chlorine allergy leading to asthma, terrible colds, total feeling of unwellness is real. Now I’m convinced my wife was right all along. Now the kids are convinced that the swimming pool is no longer enticing. Now we know 100% sure that swimming pools ARE HARMFUL to our health. And if you see these kids suffer when in a terrible cold, crying, finding it hard to breath… you will be convinced, it’s not for them, swimming pools are not for us.
So our next best bet are the beaches. The clean ones. Already I can identify the Pacific ocean side of the Philippines as the cleanest beaches. No industries and no shipping there at all. Natural pools. The beach in Laiya Batangas seemed very clean. We should go to the beach this April while on summer break.
Bottom line: No to swimming pools. Yes to clean beaches!