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Swim, Baby, Swim!
May 25, 2009 at 9:10 AM by Cafe Suzanne - Comments (18)
Have you ever seen those photos of really young babies swimming around under water? I'd be afraid to toss my little one into a pool at that young an age. I did, though, sign up for swimming lessons last summer when she was six months old.
I'm glad I did. There's a lot of debate about babies and swimming lessons. Some people think they should be taught to swim to help protect against drowning. Others say swimming lessons too early in life could decrease a child's fear of water and give parents a false sense of security, thus increasing their child's chance of drowning. But when I read about a recent study that showed that kids who take swimming lessons are less likely to drown than those who don't, I was sold.
The class we took was 45 minutes long, and it was held at a local Y. The pool was just for kids—very shallow and incredibly warm. We played all kinds of water games and sang songs and my baby really seemed to like it.
So did she learn to swim? No, and that wasn't really the object. The idea was just to get her used to the water and familiar with kicking and moving her arms and blowing bubbles. She loved it and she got really excited when I got her dressed in her bathing suit in the morning. I really enjoyed having that special time with her. We'll definitely be going back again this year.
Does your baby like the water? Are you going to give him swimming lessons?
FILED UNDER: activities, safety, summer vacations
Comments:
we are stationed in germany and the nearest community pool is a couple hrs away from us. i would love to get my kids to learn how to swim but they are gonna have to wait another year and a half it looks like. my dd LOVES anything to do with water. my son....well it took us quite a bit of time for him not to scream in the bathtub lol
My DD is 9 months old and we started swim classes 2 weeks ago and absolutely love it...t something that WE can do together.They do fun songs, put their faces under water and she does just great! Im so glad we are doing them.
i would love to put my 7 month old into swim classes and probably will once we can afford it :]
I didnt start swimming until I was 10 years old & I was so scared of the water my mom was a swimmer & wanted us to swim too(I was Adopted) My brother screamed I didnt scream but I was scared & now I love to swim. My girls have never been to a real big swimming pool but I always put a little pool in our front yard & they love it. My 4 year old tells me every day "mommy I want to go swimming"
Our daughther is just over two and is going on her third week of swimming lessons with infant swim resource. We really like our instructor, she is awesome with the kids and our daughter is doing great. I would highly recommend ISR for every child.
I am going to sign up for the infant swim class at the local YMCA, my dd is 8months old and I have been getting her used to the water in the bath tub, I have been trying to teach her to swim myself when we go in our pool she loves it! She can hold her breath and go under for a few secs and can float on her back with me holding her head, I am going to keep working with her and I think she'll be swiming in no time!
my 10 month old son has been to the pool many many times. he loves it, and the bath is the highlight of his day. my daughter is finally ok with the pool at age 4, before that she went through nearly 2 years of screaming whenever we came near a pool or bathtub. so glad that's over. they are both in swimming lessons.
i took my daughter to the pool for the first time last summer and she was 2 and half months. she loved the water and still does. i really wanted to do a class with her this summer but i think i missed the enrollment date so im pretty mad about that
I started both my kids at 4 months old swimming they could both swim before they could walk!! We went year round... I'm in my last session of mommy and me with my now 2 year old :( guess I"ll need to have a new baby so I can keep swimming with them LOL!!
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Our son is okay in water and will be starting the Infant Swim Resource program in June. Babies can actually start as young as 6 months of age. He would've started that young but the weather prohibited it. We're REALLY excited for him to be learning to swim at this young of an age. We have a huge backyard pool, and though we have a door alarm so we could hear if he ever got out, things happen. ISR may be pricey for some, but it's worth every penny in my opinion.
tippymorgan08 May. 25, 2009 at 9:51 AM