Young Children and Intro To Water

[JasonH20]

Not sure if this is the best place to post, so mod's feel free to move if it should be elsewhere.

Just curious to get other people's opinions on intorducing young children to the water and swimming. My son just turned 2, and he absolutely loves the water. Baths, pool, lakes, ocean, it's all fun for him. As an infant, my wife and I took him to the pool every couple of months, and now as a toddler try to get him to the local kiddy pool every month or so.

I'm happy he's so comfortable around the water, but MY fear is HIS fearlessness! If he's in the mood, he'll just walk right off the edge of the pool into the water! Consequently, when we're around water, I have to hold him, or be prepared to get wet in a hurry! Thankfully, we haven't even had anything near a close call, but I wonder how to instill respect for the water without introducing fear of the water? Everytime he's plunged into the water I've been there to bring him back to the surface. I just hope he realizes he can't do that if mom or dad aren't already in the pool waiting for him!

Another thing I'm curious about is letting him stay submerged. Anytime he goes under, I usally let him kick and squirm around for a few seconds (usally to my wife's horror) before I bring him back up to the surface. He seems to love it and always comes up with a big smile. His eye's are open, and he'll grab my arm or anything else within reach while he's under. I'm curious how long I should let him stay under? A few seconds doesn't sound like long, but when it's your baby it seems like an eternity! He's obviously OK with holding his breath for a few seconds, so is it OK to try to let that go longer? 10 seconds? 20? Also, he's never actually tried to come back up on his own. He'll be in chest deep water and just sit down. A few seconds later I'll hoist him back up to a standing position. I wonder if I let him stay under for a bit longer if he'd try to stand back up on his own?

Hopefully the diving community will have some interesting views on this!

Thanks,
Jason

 

[Froglady]

Not sure if this is the best place to post, so mod's feel free to move if it should be elsewhere.


If he's in the mood, he'll just walk right off the edge of the pool into the water!

My son was they same way, he thought nothing about jumping into the 6 feet or deeper water.
reinforced pool safety/no jumping in without someone with him... with consistent consequences like sitting on side of pool for a minute.(you must be consistanet) local pool rule...adult have to be within arm reach of child at all times while at pool, I enforced same rule at home
I also got him a floation swimsuit and progressed to less floation devices as his swimming improved

Another thing I'm curious about is letting him stay submerged. Also, he's never actually tried to come back up on his own. He'll be in chest deep water and just sit down. A few seconds later I'll hoist him back up to a standing position.

MY son never tried to stay under. He would dive in and kick his way back up and attempt to swim, but never just stayed under even when he didn't have floation device on (the diving scared me enough, I am like your wife, panic when child underwater) This summer he was 4, he played with the other kids and tried to hold breath and stay sumerged with them but he still came up for breath on his own. As long as he holds his breath I guess it's ok. But his not coming up on his on...I'm not sure

 

[redacted]

My youngest swam before she walked and never was in a wading pool or used any floatation aids until she could swim. But she always worked her way to the surface where we could see in her eyes when she needed help. We always had to watch her until she finally got strong enough to breath as she swam. That happened when she was three.

She is now 33 (I think) and swimming 3 to 5 KM workouts and races. But she is not pushing her 5 YO daughter as hard as we let her push herself.

 

[Hank49]

I think it's great when small kids love the water. My biggest fear, well I'm sure any parent's, is having your child fall into a pool and not be able to make it to the side when no ne is there. So I taught my kids at a very young age. Here's how I believe they learned to swim so well, so young. I put a mask on them as soon as it would fit...like at 2 and a half or so and let them look. Instant stoke. Then a snorkel. I believe it worked well because when kids learn to swim, they have a hard time rotating their head to the side to breath. So they look up to the front...the head goes up, the feet go down and their thrashing around going nowhere. With the mask and snorkel they can keep their heads down...plus they're really stoked to see fish and everything. Next they got fins and we were off snorkeling the reefs.

 

[ReneeC]

My son was swimming around the bathtub at 6 months and underwater in the pool by 2. Infants have a natural reaction to hold their breath when submerged. This summer I taught my 4 year old grandson who to snorkel and now we can't keep him out of the water. The sooner they learn the safer they will be.

 

[Lightning Fish]

... Just curious to get other people's opinions on intorducing young children to the water and swimming. My son just turned 2, and he absolutely loves the water. Baths, pool, lakes, ocean, it's all fun for him. As an infant, my wife and I took him to the pool every couple of months, and now as a toddler try to get him to the local kiddy pool every month or so.

I'm happy he's so comfortable around the water, but MY fear is HIS fearlessness! If he's in the mood, he'll just walk right off the edge of the pool into the water! Consequently, when we're around water, I have to hold him, or be prepared to get wet in a hurry!

So imagine what happens if you aren't there and he jumps in... and he will jump in. If he knows how to swim, his odds of surviving improve greatly. Obviously he won't learn overnight, but if you start now, by the age of 4 he should be able to swim to the edge of the pool. I have the same problem with my son (18 months), he has no fear and doesn't understand the consequences of jumping into a pool. He has tried but I was there.

Another thing I'm curious about is letting him stay submerged. Anytime he goes under, I usally let him kick and squirm around for a few seconds (usally to my wife's horror) before I bring him back up to the surface. He seems to love it and always comes up with a big smile. His eye's are open, and he'll grab my arm or anything else within reach while he's under. I'm curious how long I should let him stay under? A few seconds doesn't sound like long, but when it's your baby it seems like an eternity! He's obviously OK with holding his breath for a few seconds, so is it OK to try to let that go longer? 10 seconds? 20? Also, he's never actually tried to come back up on his own. He'll be in chest deep water and just sit down. A few seconds later I'll hoist him back up to a standing position. I wonder if I let him stay under for a bit longer if he'd try to stand back up on his own?

My daughter started taking swimming lessons at one year. My son will start at 20 months. The kids do briefly go under water, a second or two. If he is sitting in chest deep water and submerges his face, let him decide when to come up. If he is in trouble, you will know. My son does this all the time in the bath.

This summer my son spent some time in a pool. I would submerge him for at most a second and he would come up spluttering and coughing. A month later he was in a toddler pool with the water up to his waist. He bolted on me, tripped, and lay face down in the water. It took two strides to get to him and lift him up, he had a big grin on his face. There was no coughing or spluttering. I put him down and he did it again.

Bill.

 

[CBulla]

Your on the right track - just keep reinforcing safety stuff with him and you'll be fine. My son is going on 2 this February and its tough to keep him out of the water. We've been fortunate in that he listens to verbal queue's really well and won't do things without clearing it first, otherwise I'm sure I'd have had a swim or two in the unexpected fashion.

Sounds like your on track for a snorkel buddy and future dive buddy though!

 

[nurse H2O]

The YMCA has a special program for tots and infants. Designed especially for them.My kids went and i havent been able to keep them out of the water since. I think it is called "water babies" It's fun for mom or dad too. :honeybunn

 

[opiniongirl]

Wow! Sounds like you are doing a fabulous job! I used to teach swimming for tots - as for the jumping in, the best way was mentioned above - teaching and enforcing the pool and water safety rules. I think getting him ready for this step by waiting for you prior to entering the water, and getting him to wait for you to be ready to catch him, as well as some explanations of pool and water safety rules, you should have good success, as long as you are consistent.

As for the breath holding, try going in shallow water and get him to hold onto the side of the pool while you hold him up, and dip his face in to blow bubbles. Once he's out of breath, tell him to lift his head up and say "all gone!" or "boo" or whatever - peek a boo in the water.

You can then progress to an area shallow enough where he can stand up, hold your hands and do the same thing (this also gets him used to being within reach of you), and finally progressing where he sits down to submerge, and then stands up when he's out of air.

goggles and masks are great, but I've found that kids do start to rely heavily on them, some even developing phobias of water in the nose or eyes, if they are used too much - they are excellent tools for learning floats, kicking strokes, and submerged swimming however. One word of advice though - try and find goggles which are larger (ie not the traditional type that go over the eye sockets) they now have new ones which are larger and more comfy. For masks, try and avoid PVC as it is more prone to leaks and not as comfortable.

Hope this helps!!

 

[jaycanwk]

This would be an excelent oporitunity for you to sign him up for swimming lessons. Since he is so comfortable with the water now, he should do just fine and progress quickly because comfort in the water is half the battle at that age when learning to swim. I have taught that age range to swim for a number of years now and a kids like your son are my favorites to teach. The added bonus of enrolling him in a structured class is that he will also learn water safety and a healthy respect for the water since that seems to be your concern now.