Children and Scuba Diving

[Jackter45]

I would like to ask for anybody's (particularly instructors and divers with good medical knowledge) opinions on children scuba diving.
Whatever you think the advantages or disadvantages of children diving I would like to know, as well as any restrictions you would place on children when they dive.
This information will help me to write the 2,000 word research project about the advantages and disadvantages of children I am currently working on.
Also any information about other agencies (than PADI) 'junior' qualifications would be very welcome as I am trying to form wider range of knowledge.
If you think your information/opinion will only be applicable to one type of diving/set of environmental conditions (e.g. Tropical Night Diving) please let me know.
Thanks a lot
Jack

 

[Curtis C]

My son isn't old enough yet for open water stuff. He did have a blast with his instructor at a padi bubble maker. I also am interested in the information you're asking because I know I have a little diver on my hands.

 

[fire_diver]

Depends on what your definition of "good medical knowledge" is. My understanding is that even the experts can't say what long-term effects may or may not be from allowing children to scuba dive. That is why there are arbitrary depth limits in place for child divers. But, since this is best they have come up with so far, I allow my son (who got certified at age 10) to with me while staying within those limits.

 

[drrich2]

I hope that our little pre-toddler daughter takes up scuba diving. Benefits I hope for:

1.) Enjoyment of the natural beauty God blessed us with.

2.) Providing a real world 'lab.' for demonstrating both the fact and relevance of principles from a number of scientific disciplines, including zoology (marine animals, ecosystem & environmental concerns like reef health and effects of over-fishing), chemistry (qualities of water, salt vs. fresh water, partial pressures of gases), physics (pressure effects at depth, buoyancy, density of water vs. air in terms of pulling heat off the body), physiology (e.g.: immersion diuresis, arterial gas embolism, narcosis), and so forth.

3.) Encourage some travel, getting out to see some of the natural world and getting a sense that the world is a place she can go. How many of us are blessed with opportunities to arrange and travel to wonders across the world, yet hardly take advantage of any of it? I had never set foot outside the United States until I was 37 years old. Our little daughter has already been on a cruise and hit a number of sites in the Caribbean.

4.) Scuba teaches applying scientific principles in a responsible, methodical manner (e.g.: don't stay down too long, check your depth and gas remaining often, etc…) that requires discipline to do well and safely, with an eye towards mitigating potential risks. Good things to teach a kid, especially one that will likely somebody be wanting to drive a car.

5.) Encourage environmental responsibility by putting her in the ocean, on the reefs, and in mind of what's out there. Make the oceans a place she's been and still visits, not some vague idea she's never even seen.

Richard.

 

[SanDiegoSidemount]

I am not medically trained beyond first aid/CPR/AED/O2, but I am a scuba instructor with 3 kids, 2 of whom have learned to scuba dive within certain strict limits.

I did a lot of research before getting my kids involved in diving. From a medical perspective, the differences in the physiological effects of hyperbaric exposure on kids vs. adults are unknown. In the end, my conclusion was that the most important factors in introducing kids to diving are mental and emotional, not physical or physiological.

First off, is the child smart enough to understand Boyle's Law and what it means in diving? How well does the child respond to stress? How well to they receive coaching/instruction? How comfortable are they in general in the water? Are they mature enough to understand the consequences of unsafe actions?

For each of my kids, the answers to these questions were different. One was more than ready to scuba dive at age 10. The other is now 11 and still limited to shallow, surface supplied diving (Snuba) under very close supervision. The third is only one year old, but she loves her pink wetsuit! :baby:

If the answers to these questions are satisfactory to you as their parent, then you can cautiously start down the path of introducing your child to scuba.

- Snorkeling is a great introduction. Spend a lot of time with this, low stress, before any scuba experience. If they love to snorkel and just can't get enough, it's a good sign.
- There are "bubble blower" programs for kids as young as 8. This involves very shallow explorations in confined water, generally swimming pools.
- Kids can be scuba certified by most agencies as young as 10. These "junior" certifications are limited to 40 feet depth, and the child must dive with an adult.
- I would go further than above, and advise that any certified child should dive in a buddy "trio", with two competent adults. Don't rely on a child to be a fully competent buddy in any emergency situation.
- A parent can certainly be the child's mentor, but someone else should be their instructor. That's what I did. Interview more than one instructor who has experience training children. Ask lots of questions about how they teach kids differently from adults.
- Kids should only dive in the safest, least stressful situations. If there are any significant stressors (weather, visibility, current, etc.) then best to keep them out of the water. Discuss the dive plan in detail ahead of time, and ask if there's anything about the conditions or the dive plan that stresses them.

Bottom line, you are the parent, and you know your child the best. Think everything through and use your best parental judgment.

Good luck on your research, and happy diving to you and your family!

 

[Jackter45]

SanDiegoSidemount
Just to point out I am the person who is diving. I am 14 and have dived in the pool since the age of 10-11 and got my Junior Open Water qualification aged 12 1/2. I think what you said about conditions is absolutely spot on. My first proper OW dive was under Swanage (South Coast UK) pier, there was very little current and 6m visibility. My most recent two dives for my Advanced OW were made in an old gravel pit. The visibility was somewhere between 2m and nothing, depending on however many people had dived there previously. This would have been terrifying as my first dive but with more experience the dive was much better. Another massive factor is temperature. I have recently dived with a 12 year old doing his OW and an instructor. Wearing similar suits he half froze but I was fine. The major factor in this was that the age difference.

Your information will be very useful and is much appreciated

 

[drrich2]

Okay, some down side issues.

1.) When things go wrong in scuba, you often have a choice. You can react instinctively, such as bolting for the surface holding your breath, or you can stop, think, act - out of training, knowledge and reason. If you act on instinct, in the example I just gave, in addition to the 'bends' you are at risk for arterial gas embolism, pneumothorax and mediastinal emphysema. It's said a number of dead scuba divers have been found on the bottom as they did not ditch their weights.

Point: Is a 10 year old, for instance, apt to handle bad surprises in an alien environment while trying to manage 'life support' equipment in the proper way? Your mask strap breaks and suddenly you've got a face full of water, can't see well, your eyes are in pain and... Your BCD has a failure, won't inflate and you are sinking... You jump in having forgotten to turn your air on, you're sinking, and you can't breath or inflate your BCD... None of these things need to kill you. Any of them can. How about a stuck inflator inflating your BCD, or a regulator free-flow?

2.) Judgment. You do not stick your hand in holes in the reef (unless you're hunting lobster & wearing kevlar gloves or some such) because in addition to coral abrasions, a moray eel may bite you. If you're at 90 feet looking at a big sea turtle and the MOD for your nitrox is 111 feet, you don't zip on down to around 130 feet to look at the turtle up close (like I saw an adult woman do). You don't wave a dead lion fish and tease a barracuda to see what it will do. To a seasoned diver, these things sound stee-yew-pid. To some 10 year olds, hey, sounds like fun...

3.) Physics - as you've noticed, smaller people have a higher surface area to mass ratio & lose heat faster in environments colder than body temp. (this is said to be why shrews have to eat so much; it applies to endothermic (a.k.a. 'warm-blooded') animals), and water is much denser than air and pulls heat off us much faster. So kids are at higher risk for excessive cooling.

4.) Emergency Preparedness - you're on a boat dive in the ocean, get lost from buddy & group, surface well away from the boat, now you're lost at sea. What to do? Inflate your BCD, wait to be found within a few hours (you hope) before dehydration kills you, try to avoid getting roasted by sunburn, pray and think about how maybe that Nautilus Lifeline thing doesn't sound like a bad idea for future diving. Point your camera at any boat and take photos, hoping the flash gets you noticed. Is a 10 year old going to do all this?

5.) Buddy Duties - if the adult buddy has an issue (panic, medical complication, entanglement, etc...), how ready is the kid to help?

None of these mean a 10 year old can't dive. But they are reasons why maybe some 10 year olds shouldn't.

Richard.

 

[DMDavid]

First you need to ask yourself is my child mature enough and smart enough to take on the responsibilities that come with the sport of scuba diving?
The real problem here is that most parents think that their child is the smartest kid on Earth and may also not be able to see that their child isn't truly mature enough.
My personal preference is 12 and above and that's only if the child really wants to with no pressure from the parents.

My daughter using scuba in the pool at 8 years of age.

And still actively diving today at age 19.

 

[SanDiegoSidemount]

SanDiegoSidemount
Just to point out I am the person who is diving. I am 14 and have dived in the pool since the age of 10-11 and got my Junior Open Water qualification aged 12 1/2.

Awesome! So I have some questions for YOU, young diver, which are more or less the opposite end of the questions I typically ask parents:

- How did you get interested in scuba? Do your parents dive? Did you do much snorkeling first?
- Who introduced you to pool diving? Did you do it with friends?
- How was your OW course? Where did you take it? Did you take it with other kids, or adults? Did you find it challenging? In good or bad ways?
- Before you turned 14, did you always dive with an adult buddy? Within your certification limits?
- Who have your mentors been? How do you feel about the advice/instruction they offer you?
- What is your view about the risks of diving? What are you the most careful about?
- What has changed in your knowledge/attitude about diving over the time you have been doing it? (The past ~4 years)
- What is your parents' attitude towards your diving? How involved are they with you in this activity?

You are a very well spoken young man, which is probably why a few of us mistook you for an adult/parent asking. I'm eager to hear YOUR point of view.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I hope that our little pre-toddler daughter takes up scuba diving. Benefits I hope for:

1.) Enjoyment of the natural beauty God blessed us with.

2.) Providing a real world 'lab.' for demonstrating both the fact and relevance of principles from a number of scientific disciplines, including zoology (marine animals, ecosystem & environmental concerns like reef health and effects of over-fishing), chemistry (qualities of water, salt vs. fresh water, partial pressures of gases), physics (pressure effects at depth, buoyancy, density of water vs. air in terms of pulling heat off the body), physiology (e.g.: immersion diuresis, arterial gas embolism, narcosis), and so forth.

3.) Encourage some travel, getting out to see some of the natural world and getting a sense that the world is a place she can go. How many of us are blessed with opportunities to arrange and travel to wonders across the world, yet hardly take advantage of any of it? I had never set foot outside the United States until I was 37 years old. Our little daughter has already been on a cruise and hit a number of sites in the Caribbean.

4.) Scuba teaches applying scientific principles in a responsible, methodical manner (e.g.: don't stay down too long, check your depth and gas remaining often, etc…) that requires discipline to do well and safely, with an eye towards mitigating potential risks. Good things to teach a kid, especially one that will likely somebody be wanting to drive a car.

5.) Encourage environmental responsibility by putting her in the ocean, on the reefs, and in mind of what's out there. Make the oceans a place she's been and still visits, not some vague idea she's never even seen.

Richard.

You forgot probably one of the most important benefits.. I didn't realize it either- until my kids were older... There ain't a whole lotta activities a 12 or 16 yr old daughter is going to WANT to do with their dad.

They might like to have you watch her play soccer, but that is being a spectator. It is tough finding activities that the teenage kid (girls especially) want to do with their fat old dad. If you can make and maintain a connection via diving, that will be the most valuable benefit.