Do your babies swim? Mine does!

[JordanKX]

Do your babies "swim"? Cause apparently mine does. He's 10 months.

We've had a "pool" at our house - an above ground, just the inflatable cheapie, 9 ft wide 3ft deep. Summer, so far, he's not been too happy about it. Apparently he doesn't like the floaty or being sequestered to my arms.

Today he wanted to SWIM! And did!

I let him float on my arm and his lil legs and arms went bonkers, crazy frog man. And I'll be honest (don't flog me yet), after he did this for about 5 minutes, I finally said... FINE, let's see what happens, I'm RIGHT here...

So I let him go.
And he sunk. AND SWAM UP to the surface!!!!!

He wasn't scared, shocked, filled with water.. Nada. Maybe just a second of surprise and then BOOM, right back at it. He wanted to do it again! So I let him go crazy floating for a while longer. I let go of him two more times, both which he swam right back up!! Honestly by that point, I was a mess and couldn't do it anymore. It just felt WRONG to be letting my baby "GO" in the water. So we called it a day.

but.... he LOVES it! And more importantly, he can do it!

I called my family and apparently my niece is the same way - always has been. So, it wasn't a shocker. Would you call this NORMAL?

[Chamomile Girl]

That is awesome but also a bit . I agree that letting go must have been terrifying...for YOU! But very AP for your kiddo.

I took DS to a swimming class for awhile and none of the 20 or so kids there could do that! DS couldn't even figure out how to kick his legs.

[Cekimon]

there's a website about infant swimming. I think it's called ISR or something...

[Mom2M]

Wow, that is really amazing!

[JordanKX]

Originally Posted by Chamomile Girl

That is awesome but also a bit . I agree that letting go must have been terrifying...for YOU! But very AP for your kiddo.

I took DS to a swimming class for awhile and none of the 20 or so kids there could do that! DS couldn't even figure out how to kick his legs.

Yeah, that's what I thought the norm was! I know newborns have a swimming instinct, but it disappears at like 2 months or something. That he's 10 months and really capable of swimming (well, at least of getting himself back to the surface) is just... odd to me :-)

[flavorfull1]

odd but cool Maybe you could do a life vest or something like that so he could have some freedom to move around but you can breathe easier? I love swimming and can't wait to teach DS all about water and water safety so he can really play. He is 6 mo and nowhere near ready to think about letting go! what a little fish you have!

[astar326]

Originally Posted by Cekimon

there's a website about infant swimming. I think it's called ISR or something...

here is a video i saw about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwvv5IyPkXM
it was hard for me to watch at 1st, but i think it's great.

[annaconda]

I started swim class at 6 months old myself and loved swimming. I don't know if I was on my own without swimmies... but if your little one is supervised and safe, and LOVES it... who knows? You might just have a little Michael Phelps in training ha ha

[JordanKX]

Originally Posted by astar326

here is a video i saw about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwvv5IyPkXM
it was hard for me to watch at 1st, but i think it's great.

WOW. Ok, I'm in tears. Thank you for sharing!!!
ISR - here we come! This is awesome... clearly we need some swimming lessons.

[P.J.]

Originally Posted by astar326

here is a video i saw about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwvv5IyPkXM
it was hard for me to watch at 1st, but i think it's great.

Wow!

Wish they had that around here. Looks like it's only in the States though.

My husband is planning on taking our son to baby swim classes, but they don't start until 3 months.

[kismetbaby]

I've seen other videos of babies swimming and my DH was really interested, but am a bit scared. . .besides they don't have any classes that start babes before 6m around here and I think most of them loose this swimming "instinct" by then. I know my DS loves the water and when he was much younger it seemed that he would naturally kick his legs. Now, not so much. But when we've been at the pool he has dunked his face in the water and not choked. . .although he looked pretty dang surprised.

I'm just not brave enough to let him go. But I would definitely foster this in your DS since he has shown you he can do it!