Babies in Water.

Above about water babies.

LOOK pure enjoyment of the person subject to a 6-month Alfie Lynch, as he carries on his back in the pool with his mother. Water is not afraid to enjoy it.
He is the youngest participant in this Thursday morning adult and child session at West Wood Health Club in Leopardstown, south Dublin, where the instructor Pat Walsh was coaching children in the 10-meter pool.

Alfie’s three-year-old brother, Harry, readily responds to Walsh’s encouragement from the deck to blow bubbles, to put his head back in the water and look at the lights, to splash his hands.

Another pair of siblings, Seán (2) and Patrick Wynne (nine months), are also clearly having fun. Seán is quite prepared to put his face in the water to push a bright orange plastic ball along with his forehead.

“He is quite fearless,” says Seán’s mother, Bríd. “It is a good way to introduce them to water and it is good to meet other kids. They bounce off each other.”

This idea of trying to instil water confidence and swimming skills in children from an early age is becoming increasingly popular. And a recent change in the advice offered by US paediatricians on when children should start swimming lessons is likely to bolster the trend worldwide.

Up to last month, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) did not recommend swimming lessons for children until after their fourth birthday, when they were considered developmentally ready.

This position was based partly on concerns that early swimming training would give parents a false sense of security, making them less likely to ensure their children were adequately supervised around water. Equally, it was believed that reducing toddlers’ fear of water might encourage them to enter the water without supervision.

Now the AAP is saying children as young as one could benefit from swimming lessons. The latest edition of its journal, Pediatrics, quotes research from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which concludes that swimming lessons do not increase the risk of drowning in one to four year olds and might, in fact, reduce it.

“In light of this new research, it is reasonable for the AAP to relax its policy regarding the age at which children should start learning water-survival skills,” according to the policy statement. “However, the current evidence is insufficient to support a recommendation that all one- to four-year-old children receive swimming lessons.”

The possible benefit of early swimming instruction must be weighed against the potential risks (eg, hypothermia, hyponatremia – also known as water intoxication – infectious illness and lung damage from pool chemicals).

Referring to the growing popularity of water-survival skills programmes for babies under 12 months, it says that although there are anecdotal reports of infants who have “saved themselves”, no scientific study has clearly demonstrated the safety and efficacy of this training for such young children.

Parents should be reminded, it adds, that swimming lessons will not provide “drown-proofing” for children of any age.

Bringing children aged under four to pools is growing in popularity, agrees Roger Sweeney of Irish Water Safety. “It is seen by many parents to have benefits, in that the earlier children start in a pool, the less fear the child experiences later taking classes.”

But he stresses the importance of constant supervision and making sure the water in the pool is warm enough. “Remember that the toddler will not be moving around as much as a typical swimmer.” It is also important that the child wears leak-proof nappies.

There are no issues regarding immunisations for babies going swimming. Dr Brenda Corcoran of the HSE’s National Immunisations Office recommends simply that children are kept up to date with their vaccinations.

Confusion about the safety of bringing a child to a pool straight after vaccination arises, she suggests, from the practice up to the late 1990s of using an oral vaccine against polio, when people had to be careful with the child’s excretions for a while afterwards. This no longer applies.

Good hygiene is always important and parents should also ensure their babies are well before bringing them to a pool.

Four months is “the perfect time” to start introducing babies to swimming pools, according to Swim Ireland. The national governing body for swimming has developed an “aquatic pathway”, which identifies the emotional, cognitive and physical considerations of child development and matches them to the water environment.

Its “Swimathon” programme helps babies learn water skills through colour, music and movement. It includes a parents’ pack, so that the songs and movements can be repeated at home in the bath.

“A child from four months, through to three or four years of age, begins to pick up those basic skills, which they need to take them through to swimming,” says Swim Ireland’s director of education and development, Charlotte Parker.

“At three and a half to four, when the child is more developed, that is when they move into a more rigorous, structured swimming programme.”

Swim Ireland is rolling out a new programme for children aged four to eight that concentrates on aquatic skills rather than distance swimming.

We are trying to completely change parents’ mindset, Parker explains. “When your children go to a swimming lesson, don’t expect to see lengths and lengths being swum – please expect to see fun and games and basic skills.”

Previous programmes focused on trying to teach a child to swim as soon as possible. “That is not the best way of doing it,” says Parker.

“The best way is teaching them aquatic breathing and all the basic fundamentals they need in the water such as propulsion, buoyancy and basic water confidence. The skills then develop into the other disciplines, whether it be water polo, swimming, synchronised swimming, diving, life-saving or whatever they want to do.”