How young do you start off your baby with baby swimming lessons? I’ve watched a video of a swimming instructor who trained a very young baby on floating. She let the baby lie on his back and occassionaly let him sink. The baby’s natural instinct was to waddle his feet and arms and he came back up on the surface. I thought all was well and what a brave baby he was. But when she lifted him up, I saw that he was crying! Poor baby!
That was not all there was to it. The instructor then sat baby on the edge of the pool and then pushed him into the water. Obviously the baby sank but he managed to float up once again. Then she flipped him, feet over his head, and let him sink and float up again. Each time the baby was lifted from the pool, he would be crying.
After watching the video, I would never think of putting my own baby through this. Though it must be quite safe and it’s probably a legitimate way of training a baby to swim, I can’t bear to “torture” him like that.
However, if there were swimming lessons carried out differently like the pictures below, then I wouldn’t mind at all. It looks quite fun for the babies, don’t you think?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Baby’s head hanging on the float? Won’t that hurt?
Don’t think it’ll hurt…hmm, maybe should test it out to know for sure?
don’t use buoyancy aids of any kind – try to find a gentler class that introduces sub surface swimming, but not in such an extreme way…
Thanks for the tips, Sarah. I’ve yet to send my son to any swimming lessons nor just a dip in the pool due to my worry of the H1N1