Community Corner
MOMS TALK: Could Your Infant Survive A Fall Into A Pool?
This week, a University Place Patch Mom discusses water safety for children and families, programs available and techniques that could save your child.
If I were to dangle your 6-month-old daughter above my 6-foot-deep swimming pool, would you let me drop her?
There are parents who would say, “yes.”
Every time I see this video in an e-mail or on my Facebook page, my heart skips a beat. A child drowning is one of many fears a mother has when raising children.
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Infant Swimming Resource has perfected infant survival swimmingand has given thousands of babies the tools they need to survive if they wander into the depths of a swimming pool.
I know it seems unbelievable that you can teach your baby to survive falling into a deep pool, but it’s possible. Watch the video here.
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Living in an area surround by water, my children take swim lessons. It’s a tool I feel they need, especially living in an area where water is only a walk away.
But lessons can sometime be stressful for children.
My daughter hated the water. She feared water so much that she wouldn’t put her head under if her life depended on it, which I hoped it never would.
My son, no problems. When he was an infant, he and I took "Baby and Me" swim lessons together. In class we learned to have fun, hold our breath and float.
What tools should we expect our children to learn when it comes to water safety? What can we do to encourage learning to swim when our little ones fear the water more than the monster in the closet or under the bed?
Patricia Henderson Shimm, parent educator and author, suggests that if our children are afraid of the water, don’t force them to enter. Do not grab them, carrying into the depths yourself, she advises.
Shimm recommends that if your children see you playing at the water’s edge and having fun, they are more likely to participate.
Shimm also recommended what we did with our son. Parents and kids swim class together. Having the security of their parents in a structured atmosphere can help ease the woes of a child.
Learning to swim can be a stressful time not only for the children, but also for the students. Giving the tools they need to be successful seems to be the consensus amongst parents.