Baby Swimming
May 4, 2008Have you ever seen beautiful pictures of babies swimming under water? Or the popular Nirvana cover? With images like these on my mind, I signed Leo up for baby swimming.
Supposedly babies under 6 months of age are excellent swimmers due to their diving reflexes. Just like when an adult’s air passage blocks during swallowing, a baby automatically blocks it’s throat so it won’t swallow water. But Leo was already 7 months old when our course began on March 9.
Our course instructor Ute Oesterreicher doesn’t base her courses on the “diving reflex”. She feels this approach is too risky, because you never know how strong the reflex is, as it disappears sometime during baby’s first year (some say it can last up to 18 months).
Ute’s approach is to have fun with the babies in the water, play games, sing songs and splash around. New challenges are introduced very gradually. For Leo, who never even liked being bathed, this seems to be the right method.
See Leo and Jan with our friends Johanna, Petra and Thomas singing a favorite song:
If you didn’t catch the words, here they are: “Pitsch und patsch, pitsch und patsch, der Regen macht die Haare nass. Von der Nase auf den Mund und von dem Mund dann auf das Kinn und von dem Kinn dann auf den Bauch, dort ruht der Regen sich jetzt aus … und nimmt mit einem großen Satz: auf die Erde PATSCH!«
The water is a delightful bathtub temperature, about 30°C (86°F). Some babies quickly feel comfortable in the water. Others, like Leo, need more time. At first Leo was very stiff and clingy. Slowly he is becoming accustomed to the water, kicking and splashing, enjoying the experience more and more. If we keep this up regularly, Leo can learn to hold his breath on cue when dipped underwater. But it will be a while before Leo can actually swim, above or below the surface.
One of the course’s highlights so far is a short dip under water. Ute pours a small stream of water down the baby’s forehead and across it’s face. This prepares the baby to hold it’s breath for the dip. Watch Johanna and then Leo have a go at it.
Leo is 8 months and 25 days. More baby swimming pictures.
May 18: Today Leo splashed around a lot. He is becoming much more comfortable in the water. Also, while Leo was gliding through the water on my hands, for the first time I saw his legs beat like frog legs. I think this was the so called “Amphibian Reflex”. It causes the legs, arms and torso to move in spurts that can propel the baby a short distance through the water, unaided. Perhaps through practice Leo could make the transition from involuntary reflex to voluntary swimming?
June 8: When we go into the pool Leo no longer gives the water suspicious glances. It is so wonderful to watch him develop confidence and new skills. Now that some of the babies are crawling they get to wear water wings for 10 minutes and float on their own. The water wings are shaped like big donuts and hold the baby’s head above the water. It felt funny to let go of Leo. The first time Leo swallowed a lot of water. Mostly on purpose. Today was the second time with water wings and already Leo was much better. He switches in and out of the back-floating position on his own and can doggy paddle (very slowly) towards a toy he wants.
Here is a quick glimpse of Leo under water:
