Advice on Keeping Kiddy Pool Clean and Healthy

Hello,
We also have a little kid pool about the same size. Both my son's father and I work full time, so our son mostly swims in it on the weekends (or after work if it's hot enough by that time) I find that cleaning it out once a week by dumping all the water out and re-filling it is the best way to go. We have a little fishing net that we use to scoop out any grass or things that might get in the water in between re-fills, but for the most part, if it looks a bit cloudy or dirty, we dump it out and fill it up with fresh water. I have never tried bleach, I know it's kind of a pain to dump it all out and refill, but in my opinion it's the safest. I hope this helps :)
Happy swimming!!
PK~

Go down to your local pool supply store, and they can sell you a small amount of bromine, the same sort of chemical now used in pools and hot tubs (chlorine is not used very widely anymore as bromine has the same effect on the organisms but with none of the smell or eye/skin irritation). At the end of each use of the pool, sprinkle in a little bit of bromine and then cover the pool (either with a tarp, or even another kiddie pool) so that bugs and such can't fall in. The bromine is NOT expensive at all.

We have a little toddler sized wading pool in our backyard, and I just put a few capfuls of bleach in there, let it sit, then dump it and refill every few days. A friend of mine, however, has a wading/kiddie pool about 3 times the size as ours and does the bromine sprinkle as well (they also have a hot tub, so they have the bromine on hand).

Thanks for asking this. I recently asked my mother-in-law. She suggested putting a little bit of dish detergent in before filling the pool with water. Haven't tried it yet, but probably will. I'm curious to learn what other suggestions are out there.

The only way you will keep it clean is to put a sanitizer in the water. I recommend chlorine over bromine because bromine is very effected by the sun. Chlorine is more stable in the sunlight. I own a pool store, so I am familliar with this problem. What I tell people is to put the chemicals (you can use liquid or granual) in the pool after the kids are finished using it for the day. If you don't over do it, by the next day the chlorine is gone, but so are the bugs, that you don't see. If you can put a little in every time you use it, you should be fine.

Since water is so precious these day, it is much better to use a sanitizer.