can your baby swim?

Anthony275 wrote: http://www.childdrowningprevention.com/

very important technique, i hope some people here look into this for their childs safety

punkeemunkee'smom replied: I have already recieved that email...It actually makes me sick to my stomach to watch it. I feel so sorry for that baby!

Anthony275 replied: yeah but the end of the video is worth it, when you see the baby's smile

punkeemunkee'smom replied: I fully understand the importance of pool/water safety. I can't help but thinking though, that for the purpose of the video it would have been sufficent to show him flip himself over and float...no need for the 5 minutes + that he was allowed to stay there. He was still ingesting water at different points and there is a such thing as dry-drowning,where a person drowns after they are in the water from having inhaled too much water. I just feel the time frame was excessive,even though I see the usefulness of the skill

luvmykids replied: I'd seen that video before too, and for the first few minutes I thought it was a sick joke

I am intrigued by that actual technique though, and hope people take water safety seriously however they go about it.

Calimama replied:
I agree. My goodness..

MoonMama replied:

A&A'smommy replied: that was crazy!!!

Mommy2Isabella replied: Firstly, If I have a pool, I would be watching my child VERY CLOSELY near the back door, or entrance to the pool.

Secondly, how do they let that child scream there for 5 minutes, thats sick! Not to mention all the water that baby swallowed.

Thirdly, great skill, I am just not to sure about the video or the pretense that if the parent is irresponsible and their child falls into the pool that there is a fail safe there, so the child protects itself ... urg ...

sparkys2boys replied: Im seriously torn here.. yes I think its a great thing for your child to be able to survive if faced in that type of situation, because no matter how closely we do watch our children accidents do happen in life, its a given. But why did they ever leave that poor child floating inhaling insane amounts of water to get there point acoss. Yes, make the video to show that it can be done because obviously this baby has done this many many times to be able to do it in the first place but goodness leaving him to cry and I am sure still be afraid was not called for at all.

BAC'sMom replied: I think the video could give parents a false security. The video doesn’t say a darn thing about if your child strikes his or her head on the way into the pool. If you have a pool #1 watch your kids like a hawk, #2 put up a fence or safety barrier around the pool, and KEEP IN LOCKED!, #3 get a pool alarm.

Cece00 replied: You know what wouldve been a million times better than teaching a child to "swim" ?(because I absolutely think that can give parents a false sense of security- and what if your child starts to panic after a few minutes & forgets they know how to "float/swim"?)

Locks on your doors that your child CAN NOT open (and then dont leave your doors open)
A pool gate with childproof locks
A Pool Alarm
A Pool cover
Watching Your Child
Dont have a pool when you have young children

And really, I think it was just mean to let that poor baby cry for his daddy for 5 minutes. Really mean, that breaks my heart.

holley79 replied:
You say you would watch your child every second of every day and that is fine. Accidents happen. I did two drowing reports when I was pregnant with Annika that involved a 2 year old and a 3 year old. Both cases the child was out of the bed, got the back door open and was in the pool. Both cases the dogs are what woke the children's parents up. We have to keep in mind that accidents do happen.

Annika knows how to swim. We have put her through the paces when she is at a pool or body of water. Living on the Gulf Coast this is a must have. Annika knows how to hold her breath she knows how to float on her back. No matter what we do for our children we have to make sure measures are taken so they can protect theirselves. What if it isn't us they are with?

Cece00 replied:
See, but there are locks you can get on your doors that makes it basically impossible for a child to unlock.

If you have a lock with a key, even- lock the door and hide the key.

If you REALLY want to make sure your kids stay in the house- I guarantee there are ways.

An alarm on the door wouldve alerted the parents of those 2 kids that the door had been opened, also.

mom2patrick&jalin replied: We do not have a pool at our house but we have friends that have a pool. Both of our children have been taught to stay away from the water without an adult. They both also have had swim lessons at the Miami County YMCA from the time of six months. I think they are never too young to learn to swim.

My3LilMonkeys replied: Interesting. I wonder - I know some adults who can't float, and not for lack of trying - they simply can't do it. Is that not true for kids also?

The girls actually watched the video with me, and first thing Brooke said was Where is his mommy? And when the baby started to cry, they both got upset and Madison demanded I take him out of the pool right now.

MoonMama replied:
I agree!

Kentuckychick replied:
I love the concept but I absolutely HATE that video... I really just wanted to reach in my screen and pull that baby out

I understand the concept of teaching a child the technique (frankly I prefer the swim and flip technique -- which smaller infants can learn as well) but for that length of time seems more like torture! That poor little guy swallowed quite a bit a pool water and was screaming a good bit of the time.

I also agree this could make parents feel a little safer than they should. Go get in a pool and see how long you can float on your back... it gets tiring after a while and add certain circumstances (colder water, dark outside, etc...) the child may very well panic. I don't think I would feel comfortable with this as the only precaution. I would still want a gate around the pool and locks on the gate and doors.

CantWait replied:
I agree with this.

We have locks on the top of our doors, both front and back because Anthony is a little escape artist. As already stated, this was done under ideal circumstances, if proper precautions are taken with household pools, "accidents" like this shouldn't accur.

Having said that, I'm all for the concept, I'm all for teaching children and babies how to swim, however the video was overboard, and I wonder if, the circumstances were different, ie....dark, cold, unfamiler surroundings the outcome would have been the same.

Anthony275 replied: I obviously didn't mean to scare everybody with this, I was showing you what can happen if you left the door open and that happened.
http://www.childdrowningprevention.com/home1.htm
Here, this one is a 2 year old swimming with the technique.

Kentuckychick replied:


I like that technique far better!
I'm not sure why they don't teach this too the infant too though? I know this is what we taught my cousin at about 7 months (the dunk and swim to the side method) There's no real reason if they can figure out how to flip and float up on their backs that they can't utilize the kick to the side method too right?

I do think that learning to float on your back should always be one of the first things taught in swimming though because it is the least stressful position in the water. I know when we were in the ocean and the current was really strong the best way to not get exhausted was to get on your back and kick back in. So I can definitely see that technique being useful.

Crystalina replied: The floating baby freaked me out also but I don't think he was "screaming" the entire 5 minutes. It started out as crying but you can see that the baby relaxes as it goes on. He still very much wants to get out of the water but he's not screaming the whole time. What worried me is that the baby may get too relaxed and fall asleep...then what?

I also agree that 5 minutes was a bit much.