Toss Baby in Water Swim Lessons?!? - Page 4

[EdnaMarie]

Originally Posted by Astrogirl

Here's a reason NOT to do it. Ever.

WATER INTOXICATION.

I don't care if you're child is scared or not. Even if your child LOVES the water, if they are under three, Water intoxication is a HUGE risk for very small children who don't have enough body mass to sustain the electrolyte imbalance from swallowing that much water.

Want more reasons not to? Please, if you were one of the people in this thread saying you are on the fence or thinking about doing this, please do your research about what can happen when a person just gets a little bit of water trapped in the lungs. Ever heard of delayed drowning?

Some other minor points as I'm reading through this thread:

1) Most child related drownings occur with children under 3 NOT being afraid of water. Most drownings occur with children who believe they can swim. These "lessons" give the illusion of safety, when in fact they are MORE dangerous. Most children under the age of three have a health fear of water. Rightfully so.

2) Babies and toddlers who do this reap no benefits compared to their "unexposed to swim lesson" counterparts. They do not make stronger swimmers. Kids are better off not knowing "how to swim" so if they do fall in the water, they can do what their instincts tell them - roll over and float. I've seen this in action - it works. Toddlers that can "swim", will try to in an accident and cause themselves more panic and energy exhaustion.

2) I clicked on all of the links in this thread touting the benefits of this method. Funny, all of them were created by businesses trying to sell baby swim lessons. Surprise surprise.

In case my stance isn't clear, I have to resort to begging - as someone who witnessed the discovery of a drowned 4 yr old (she got out of her parents house at like 6 am, while they were sleeping and somehow scaled 9 ft solid fencing because she LOVED water...and could "swim") - DO NOT DO THIS, Please!

Bears repeating!

We do "swim lessons" because my daughter loves the water. But because of that we are EXTRA careful around bodies of water. And there is no, I repeat, ZERO, dunking without the express and happy consent of the child.

[dividedsky]

i can't believe that anyone would do this. i cannot wrap my brain around it. that video... i couldn't even get through it. the poor babe!!! i agree, get a fence, lock the doors, etc...

terrible!!

[Cherry Alive]

Originally Posted by number572

Well, in the end, she's alive and a film crew would not be on a true accident, so she's helped many other kids live too. With a heavy soaked diaper & tennis shoes, she's alive after falling into a deep swimming pool. It'd be tough for certain to subject a child/infant to the learning period, but if it can save their life should they ever happen into this situation and no adult were there to rescue them, its worth it.

I think its amazing that humans have this instinct naturally & also really telling that SO many kids die unnecessarily b'c we've trained them to be afraid of the water instead of how to navigate within it & survive an accidental fall. Any self-defense situation can freak you out while learning survival techniques, even as an adult, but in the end it can be the difference between life or death.

It's one thing if it was a real accident that was videotaped by a surveillance camera, but this little girl was deliberately thrown into the pool to promote these classes. She is scared and in there for quite some time. IMO, that's sick.

That's on the same line as deliberately making a young child choke on food to market a CPR class.

That video strikes me more as some someone trying to market on parents' fear rather than trying to educate ppl on how to keep their LOs from drowning or teach them to swim.

I really appreciate this thread. Our Y has a class that teaches babies to swim. I was going to sign my DD up for it, but now I'm going to carefully investigate it before I do anything.

Honestly, it doesn't look like these babies are really taught. If so, there wouldn't be crying as they wouldn't be scared. It looks like a natural reflex. Kind of reminds me of visiting an idiot relative who bragged he "taught" his 2 YO son not to touch the hot woodstove by putting his hand on it. Abuse in both cases.

[Ducky5306]

Originally Posted by Astrogirl

Here's a reason NOT to do it. Ever.

WATER INTOXICATION.

I don't care if you're child is scared or not. Even if your child LOVES the water, if they are under three, Water intoxication is a HUGE risk for very small children who don't have enough body mass to sustain the electrolyte imbalance from swallowing that much water.

Want more reasons not to? Please, if you were one of the people in this thread saying you are on the fence or thinking about doing this, please do your research about what can happen when a person just gets a little bit of water trapped in the lungs. Ever heard of delayed drowning?

Some other minor points as I'm reading through this thread:

1) Most child related drownings occur with children under 3 NOT being afraid of water. Most drownings occur with children who believe they can swim. These "lessons" give the illusion of safety, when in fact they are MORE dangerous. Most children under the age of three have a health fear of water. Rightfully so.

2) Babies and toddlers who do this reap no benefits compared to their "unexposed to swim lesson" counterparts. They do not make stronger swimmers. Kids are better off not knowing "how to swim" so if they do fall in the water, they can do what their instincts tell them - roll over and float. I've seen this in action - it works. Toddlers that can "swim", will try to in an accident and cause themselves more panic and energy exhaustion.

2) I clicked on all of the links in this thread touting the benefits of this method. Funny, all of them were created by businesses trying to sell baby swim lessons. Surprise surprise.

In case my stance isn't clear, I have to resort to begging - as someone who witnessed the discovery of a drowned 4 yr old (she got out of her parents house at like 6 am, while they were sleeping and somehow scaled 9 ft solid fencing because she LOVED water...and could "swim") - DO NOT DO THIS, Please!

:


and as someone who was hospitalized afew weeks ago for water intoxication i'll tell you it was terrible! (I drank too much water after being outside in the heat too long) I got dizzy, disoriented, nauseous, light headed, my legs felt super heavy and i almost passed out but I was able to lie down before that happen, I was rushed to the ER and the doctor told me that yes people DO die from that! MOSTLY BABIES/TODDLERS! How sad and scary!

[jlovesl]

Originally Posted by MaryTheres

Hey Ladies, A friend of mine due in July tells me today that she plans to at six months take her baby to some swim lessons where they "toss the infant in the water and then they flip"... okay I heard this before and thought it was nutty then! But now actually being friends with someone who plans to do this is kind of freakin me out. And she was like "well mil in has a pool so safety is so important..."

Okay, first of all you still need to put life jackets on the baby/children and be with them at all times in the water, so what is the point? Secondly, my entire family of inlaws have boats, my parents in law have a motor yacht and a sailboat that we all frequent, In addition DH's cousins have party boats and ski boats and mil/fil have an inground pool, etc... I take all the proper precautions with the children and have had no desire to toss either one infant or not in a pool to train them to flip. Are these people nuts???? Or is this really okay and I am just ignorant? I have a feeling that once she has the baby she won't do it but who knows - apparently, people do this??

I think what you are talking about is ISR(Infant Swim Resource) lessons. They don't just through the baby in right off the bat. It is actually like swimming lessons. It can take anywhere from 3 - 6 weeks to teach them to float face up. I think is a great idea if you have your kids around water a lot but the lessons are REALLY expensive. $150 just to see if your child is physically able and healthy, then another $400 for the actual lessons. The lessons are only 10 mins a day for 3 - 6 weeks. A big commitment. There is a site and it really is incredible that they can teach this. If I had the time or money I would.

[mamadelbosque]

IDK, part of me thinks that the whole instinct to swim is really amazing - people who live on boats their whole lives use this instict with little babies/kids, because their kids never "learn to swim" - they know how to instinctively and use it from day 1 or 2 and never 'forget' it and then have to be taught how to later. They just get better.

But I can't quite imagine doing it to a child "just incase" because it'd have to be constantly re-inforced (used) to avoid 'forgetting' in another month or 3 or whatever. If we lived on a boat or something (my DH's dream), I could totally see the point of keeping them exposed every day or two to the water and thus keeping that 'instinct' up, yk? But just chucking a babe in the pool/lake/whatever a handful of times? No way.