Level 1
4 months - 3 years
Level 2
over 3 years
Level 3
over 3 years

Why baby swimming?

  • Babies less than one year old accept the water more readily than older children.
  • Fear of water is acquired as children grow older; the longer a child is kept away from water, the more likely the child will develop aquaphobia.
  • Babies can exercise more muscles in the water, they are less restricted by gravity and their ability to sit or stand. This increased strength often manifests itself in early acquisition of physical skills like walking.
  • Swimming improves a baby's cardiovascular fitness. Although babies are limited in how much they can improve their endurance, swimming does have a beneficial effect.
  • Early mastery of water movements gives children a head start in learning basic swimming skills.
  • Water helps improve co-ordination and balance by forcing babies to move bi-laterally to maintain their equilibrium.
  • Warm water combined with gentle exercise relaxes and stimulates babies' appetites. They usually eat and sleep better on swimming days.
  • Doctors often recommend swimming as the exercise of choice for asthmatics. For many asthmatics, exercise produces bronchial hyperactivity. Swimming causes less wheezing than other forms of exercise.  Possibly because the warm moist air around pools is less irritating to the lungs.
  • Babies flourish in the focused attention their parents lavish on them during swimming lessons.
  • As babies learn how to manoeuvre in the water on their own, independence and self-confidence blossoms.
  • Swimming provides babies with lots of skin-to-skin contact with their parents that psychologists say may deepen the bond between parent and child.
  • Learning to swim is not only a fun, healthy activity but a safety measure as well. 
     

Be sensitive to your baby's crying


Crying is the way your baby communicates with you. There are many reasons why your baby cries, but being in the water is one of the least likely. If you get out of the pool every time your baby cries, the child will begin to associate being in the water with crying. Then, whenever you get in the pool your baby will be conditioned to respond by crying. If your baby does cry when you are in the water, instead of getting out, try to determine the cause of your baby's tears. The Crying Troubleshooter, below, will help you determine the reason for your baby's crying and how to stop it.


Crying Troubleshooters