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Home › Articles › General Safety Issues › Water Babies

Water Babies

The Pros and Cons of Infant Swimming Lessons

By Melinda Copp

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The Baby Otter Swim School program starts babies at 10 months old, or 9 months if the child is crawling, and their classes are one-on-one, rather than in a group, which allows them to focus solely on one little swimmer at a time. In this program, which lasts five consecutive days, babies learn how to hold their breath under water so their lungs expand and they float. They also learn how to turn, kick and reach for the side of the pool – an important safety reaction in case Baby ever falls in.

"Drowning for the most part is preventable," says Jennifer Thomas, a mom from Cape Canaveral, Fla., who enrolled her daughter in swimming lessons at 1 year old. "It is so vital for parents and babies and toddlers to learn basic techniques. It's tragic, but where we live, we've had three toddler deaths due to drowning in their pool in the past two weeks – our most recent was last night, a 2-year-old."

Getting your baby comfortable with the water and learning important water safety skills are the most important pros of baby swimming lessons – plus it's a fun way to bond with your little one, and, in group classes, your baby gets the opportunity to interact with others in a fun environment.

The Cons

One big downside to taking your baby to swimming lessons is that he or she may still be too young, despite the age recommended by the swimming program.

"We took our 5-month-old daughter to swimming lessons last summer and we finished the two-week program, but looking back she was way too young," says Lori Bittenbender, a mom from Dallas, Texas. "The water was way too cold; she shivered and cried most of the time. And she was way too young to understand how to do the monkey crawl along the wall."

Some experts also caution that exposure to pool chemicals can be dangerous for small children. "The problem with using chlorine in pools for sanitation is that the chlorine mixes with everything from sweat to skin flakes to form a toxic soup of byproducts," says Ann Haiden, an internist in private practice in Kentfield, Calif. "These byproducts, like trihalomethane, trichloramines and dichloroacetonitrile, can actually sit above the water in a gas that can be breathed in."


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