Hellobee Boards

Ahhhh!!! That is so scary. I can only imagine the parent probably was wrangling other kids and her 2 year old wandered off.

We have done swim lessons since age 2. At 2, it was mommy and me lessons. I held her in the water and helped her get used to it. 2 was a tough age. She hated the water. The instructor helped me become more comfortable getting her comfortable. One thing she taught me - blow in her face, which will make her suck in her breath, then drop her under water for a second. That way she isn't breathing in immediately when you dump her under the water.

At 3, she did water safety with the instructor ("where is the wall? Go to the wall"). And now this year, at age 4, she is learning how to swim. If she falls into the deep end without someone there, she can pop up and paddle to the ladder. She's getting better but I can't take my eyes off of her because she isn't a "swimmer" yet.

Yes.... I would 100% get swim lessons if you are around water that often and with two kids!

We had an incident with friends this weekend were a lifeguard had to pull a child out of the bottom of the pool.

Being comfortable in the water has nothing to do with pool safety. Its a great first step and I would consider it means they would do great in lessons with learning how to kick and float.

my 1 and 3 yo are in swim lessons. i think my 3 yo will get it this year, probably not my 1 yo. but i want them to get used to the water and going under. we live in a hot area and i've already heard of a couple 2 and 3yos dying just in the last month i don't want my kids to rely on puddle jumpers or floaties. i've def seen kids as young as 18mo swim so i think its possible. alot of those kids are ones that enroll in programs like ISR swim survival programs. i don't think thats necessary for us, we don't have a pool and they're not around pools super often. but def worth looking into if you're around the pool/water alot.

The infant survival classes I priced were $470 for 6 weeks. We opted to put my 3 yr old in semi private (2:1) lessons this spring with a two week long kick start of daily lessons and then weekly lessons after that. The price was much more reasonable. She was willing to do much more with the instructor than she was with DH and me in the beginning, and now we're able to reinforce what she's learning during the week. I do put her and her sis (1.5) in puddle jumpers at the pool if I'm solo with them though, just in case.

I think the AAP does not recommend swim lessons until 4, I think in part so that parents do not feel overconfident in their swimming skills. With that said, we do swimming lessons for my 2 & almost 4 year old. My 2 year old makes me really nervous in the pool because he has no fear and doesn't fully understand that he can't just swim by himself. I think if you're going to do lessons, try to find some that focus on getting the kids to float, always go back to the side, and do not rely on floaties the entire lesson. We had a terrible experience with the YMCA just having the kids jump in with bubbles on their backs and swim away from the wall. Seems dangerous to teach young kids to do that!

I think the important thing to teach them from a very young age is to respect the water -- that they never go in without an adult accompanying them, etc. I actually think that loving the water too much and/or early stages of being able to "swim" can give them a false sense of security. Like, I know my 4yo can jump into the deep end and swim over to the wall by herself. But could/would she do that outside of that controlled situation? She definitely has an over-inflated sense of what she can/should do, so it's almost more scary than when she was younger and was scared of the water and only jump in directly to us, etc.

You obviously have to work through that point until they get bigger/stronger/better, and I'm not saying kids should NOT do swim lessons. They definitely should. But especially for young kids, I wouldn't necessarily equate swim lessons with always being safe(r) in the water.

@skipra: Actually, AAP updated their recommendation since newer research has shown that swim lessons in the 1-4 range may be beneficial. So they still have the recommendation that children over 4 should learn how to swim, but they don't have a recommendation either way in the 1-4 range, but basically leave it up to parent discretion and say that kids are ready to learn to swim at different ages.

https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/AAP-Gives-Updated-Advice-on-Drowning-Prevention.aspx?nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR:+No+local+token

@skipra: I'd heard the same thing until I stumbled upon the new recommendation. Honestly, there's a lot of more important stuff for pediatricians to keep up with, so I'm never surprised if they aren't completely up o date on all recommendations. Especially for something like this that AAP is basically saying "We don't know - you figure it out!". But, that's also why I do my own research and ask stuff here on HB!

I grew up a swimmer and always knew that when I had kids they would take swim lessons at an early age....it's such an important skill! My daughter took a few at 9 months and then we started a new program at 15 months that's an awesome mix of fun and safety skills. She loves it and has become really comfortable in the water. She's a bit fearless but we don't have a pool at home so I'm not too nervous of her getting into much trouble at this point.