son wants to scuba for his 8th birthday

[TMHeimer]

My oldest son got certified at age 15 and my youngest at age 10. Many dives later they are both fine.

Yes, but were there any life-threatening situations they had to deal with?

 

[gkrane]

Yes, but were there any life-threatening situations they had to deal with?

Yes, dealing with me if they acted like a couple of dipshits.

 

[Dubious]

I recently bought a 25-foot hose from DGX and hooked it up to one of the Apeks DST/at50's. I lay the tank outside our 18 foot Intex easy set pool. My kids can swim around underwater in the pool while breathing from the regular. I have been using the same set up for myself to just work on buoyancy without having to worry about suiting up.

 

[scubadada]

I recently bought a 25-foot hose from DGX and hooked it up to one of the Apeks DST/at50's. I lay the tank outside our 18 foot Intex easy set pool. My kids can swim around underwater in the pool while breathing from the regular. I have been using the same set up for myself to just work on buoyancy without having to worry about suiting up.

Though probably unlikely, ascent from as shallow as 4 feet can cause pulmonary barotrauma

 

[Dubious]

Though probably unlikely, ascent from as shallow as 4 feet can cause pulmonary barotrauma

Wouldn't that risk also be there when they are diving for rings at the bottom of pools without a regulator?

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Wouldn't that risk also be there when they are diving for rings at the bottom of pools without a regulator?

No, as when they dive down without breathing gas, their lungs shrink.

When full, the lungs can only stretch about 10%. Therein lies the problem. Also, if I understand a conversation I had with @LandonL , gasses can be trapped more easily in children, hence a greater risk of overexpansion injury.

 

[Dubious]

Thanks that makes sense.

 

[Ukmc]

Wouldn't that risk also be there when they are diving for rings at the bottom of pools without a regulator?

No, because regulator will provide you with a breathing pressure adjusted for depth. Thus, at 2 meters you will have air provided to you at 20% higher pressure than on the surface. So if a child does not breathe as they supposed to on an ascent or comes up too fast, it could result in 20% lung over-expansion, which exceeds accepted safe level of 10%.
For the same reason, it is also important that you don’t share your reg at depth with a snorkeler or one of your kids if one decides to free dive down and breathe of your setup (unless they really know what they are doing).

 

[Dubious]

No, because regulator will provide you with a breathing pressure adjusted for depth

Thanks. I kind of forgot about boyle's law until @wetb4getinthewater mentioned it . We did tell our son the importance of breathing. Where does the 10% acceptable safe level come from? I apologize if it was mentioned earlier in the thread. Our pool is 42" deep with a small center section where it drops to 48" (it may even be less). This gives a pressure of 1.10 to 1.12 on the bottom.

 

[Ukmc]

Thanks. I kind of forgot about boyle's law until @wetb4getinthewater mentioned it . We did tell our son the importance of breathing. Where does the 10% acceptable safe level come from? I apologize if it was mentioned earlier in the thread. Our pool is 42" deep with a small center section where it drops to 48" (it may even be less). This gives a pressure of 1.10 to 1.12 on the bottom.

This is a great question. 10% is an estimate based on elasticity of lung tissue. This ability to stretch lung tissue without tear with increase of volume is then directly converted to exerted pressure as you mentioned by Boyle’s law. To my knowledge there has not been a dedicated study to find the exact % of stretch before the lung pops. I think it would be an unethical study to do (line up groups of people with various ages and medical problems) and then send them up to the surface holding a breath from various depths... As the matter of fact, it would be a terrible study akin to hypothermia experiments on prisoners by nazis. There are a number of medical conditions and also personal factors that will effect lung elasticity (like bronchitis, emphysema or recent pneumonia or respiratory infection). There are several posts discussing potential effects of COVID on lung tissue and if it will make it more prone to barotrauma.
Under close supervision , my 6 year old practices on my octo breathing techniques in the pool. I listen to his respiratory rate and monitor depth of his breaths. I don’t think I will take him deeper than 4 ft until he is 8, although he is doing very well.