Teaching Infant Swimming with Neck Floats/Neck Rings

[TeachingMyToddlers]

I have never seen this before until today! I have seen the ones there they toss the babies in the water    which I wanted to do with my kids but the classes were insanely expensive. This looks like it's much more accessible to parents with no special training. Does anyone have any experience with this? My kids are long past it but I found the method intriguing.


<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/T25dvg5A2yc&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/T25dvg5A2yc&rel=1</a>


http://www.amazon.com/Inflatable-Learner-Float-Swimming-Collar/dp/B005XY8U8C

[c4andy20]

I actually looked into the float rings but unfortunately my kids were too old by the time I found it. So I had to keep looking for something that would help me teach my kiddos to swim.

I have successfully taught many kids to swim over the past 15 years. Although all the kids I have taught were 6 years old and up. It usually takes a lot of time to teach kids to relax in the water well enough to float. Then you have to teach them proper arm and leg movements, etc.... Most floatation devices/swimming aids restrict arm movement and actually make learning(and teaching kids) to swim much more difficult because they tend to develop bad habits. Usually kids wear floatation devices will tuck their arms and elbows in or they will keep their arms straight out. Many kids will also try to stay in an upright position and not want to lay down in the water. This upright position makes it extremely difficult to float. Water wings are definitely the worst offenders, but life jackets, and tubes don't help either.

So when I discovered the SwimFins online I was super excited. There were not very many reviews that I could find but what sold me were the few videos I found of kids wearing them on youtube. Right away I could tell that kids arms were not restricted and that they naturally went into a prone position. I bought them at the beginning of the summer (my two little ones are 2 and 3). They cost $24-$30 which is the price of an average life jacket. They are in the shape of a shark/dolphin fin and the kids love to wear them. It's definitely one of the only swimming aids kids fight to have, even if they can already swim .

I was originally going to film a tutorial on how to teach a toddler/Preschooler to swim using the SwimFin. My kids were used to wearing water wings so they had all of the above mentioned bad habits So I figured it would take a few weeks to teach my 3 year old(traditionally kids take much longer) and my 2 year old probably wouldn't be swimming for quite a while. I thought I would film myself teaching the kids to swim on the first day, then once every week after until my 3 year old could swim. Well that didn't work out as I had planned because just five days after my 3 year old put on the SwimFin she declared she didn't need it any more, she could swim. I was skeptical but I figured I would try to encourage and support her new found confidence. I went to the middle of our pool and let her go. To my surprise she swam from the middle of our pool to the ladder. That's 12ft across without any assistance. That completely blew me away, I was one proud mamma 

Two days of seeing her big sister swim without her shark fin (as my 2 year old calls it) my 2 year old refuses to wear it claiming she can swim as well. And off she went. Lola my 2 year old can only swim 3-4ft without assistance but Nani the 3 year old can now swim all the way across our 24ft pool. I know without a doubt that without the SwimFin these results would not be possible.

If you guys are interested in seeing the SwimFin in action, I have put a youtube video of my kids using it the first day, their first swim without the SwimFin, and then different clips of them swimming without the SwimFin.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/zmau3tGQVYg&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/zmau3tGQVYg&rel=1</a>

[aangeles]

TmT, I took the easy way out when it came to teaching Ella to swim.    I enrolled her in a swim school that uses the Total Immersion Method. Babies as young as 3 months are brought (not thrown) into the pool without any flotation devices, and through a sequence of systematic water play and exercises, all of them learn to swim and float after 3-4 months. After three months of once-a-week lessons, Ella can now swim straight across the length of a standard-sized pool without assistance. The best part of it is the confidence she has in the water. We recently brought her snorkeling and kayaking in the middle of the ocean, and she was as comfortable and nimble in the water as a fish! 

[bella]

my ina swam from infancy . i heard about baby swimming classes but we live in Gambia and no such classes are available . I got instead a baby swimming dvd that was amazing . I got tina also an infant wetsuit , she was born in cold period and the pool water would not be warm enough for her . Tina is six now and is like dolphin in water .
viv

[PokerDad]

Having been a swimmer myself (competing against at least one of this summer's Olympians head to head in my day and teammates/rivals of one gold medalists' older brother) , I tune into these sorts of threads.

I am counting the days almost until around January when I will do like aangeles mentioned. I plan on needing only one (possibly two) sessions to get PokerCub up and running. I might be able to do the whole thing myself; one book I found, "Watersafe Your Baby in One Week" laid out a nice plan - I may attempt it in about a month once I get PokerCub some additional inoculations, but I'm planning on the lessons at first. Once he's "safe" in the water, I can take it from there no problems.

TmT & c4andy20: Both of these products look interesting. The neck collar looks like it can free up the hands and legs to get somewhat adjusted to the water medium. The sharkfin seems appealing for similar reasons (but you can put your face in the water which in my experience teaching kids to swim is THE primary skill).

Anyway, thanks for the tips, vids, and recommendations. I'll be sure to post all about our swimming adventure when it begins (most likely in about 5 months but if I get brave, then far sooner)

[bella]

poker dad , please don't wait till January . Babies are born swimmer , you can start in your bathtub , or a good size paddling pool . i actually used my inflatable birthing pool . And regarding floating devices I actually think they are not good . Somebody mentioned it is hard to get older kids to relax and float in the water . that is why an infant will naturally relax , didn't develop fear yet . I waited till my kids were like 3 months old to take them in a public pool but they swam in our  paddling pool daily from day one and went under water . it comes naturally and infants know how to hold their breath the longer you wait you'll need to retrain them . ANd infants learnr to swim under water first , I did the institues program in philadelphia for physical excellence and i followed heir recommendations together with the baby swimming dvd i got . The video actually encouraged me to do it after watching other tiny babies underwater .
oh and congrats for your new blessing
viv

[Jenene]

We didn't have anything as nifty as a swim fin but what we use works in a similar way.  It is a back float similar to this (just a random link I found)
http://www.swimoutlet.com/product_p/20604.htm
As they get more confident the floats can be removed so that they need to do more work to stay afloat.  My kids have spent most of the time just using 2 floats before not needing them at all.
Definitely not for a baby though.  I think my kids started using them around 20 months (possibly could have earlier but they were both around that age when Summer was here). 
We spend time with them using this float but also swimming without it depending on how closely I can be watching them (if other children are with me etc..).

[Mandabplus3]

Well I used arm bands on 2 of my kids and they could all swim quite well quite early. ( one kid hated the armbands, even the idea of putting them on) I was aiming for water safety by 2 and independent swimming by 3. We got there no problem. I do think it isn't hard to teach even younger children to swim so aim higher ( younger) than I did!
Anyway I used the arm bands as I had multiple children in the water with only one adult! as we didn't have a pool at home I used any opportunity to get them in the water I could, often all 3 of them! ( often even more than my 3! But we had out of the water rescuers around too)  They each had time in the water without the armbands but spent plenty of time in the water with them also. I just gradually reduced the amount of air in the armbands each time they could support themselves a bit better. Until they no longer needed them. The children did spend a bit of time being surface swimmers, but happily dive for objects and have never had any problems relaxing to float.  So although they may not be the ideal tool they do work, and they are a great idea if you have multiple children to teach.

[bella]

Manda exactly what happened with number 3 Matthew , i didn't do what i did with Tina for special family circumstances and i am teaching him to swim the traditional way , how you did also , and i do put armbads for him if i am not able to get in the pool with him , but i can see i need to work on teaching him to swim and he is not as natural as Tina in the water . my post to poker dad was about infant swimming . I realize not everybody could put their tiny babies in water from day one but if possible it would be great then no teaching is necessary , babies would take to water like fish . babies can swim before they crawl .
It is like with reading eventually all kids would learn to read , but those mamas who succeeded with their babies reading so early  before 1 , Unfortunately mine didn't , i had to work on it after they were 2 , of course early exposure to flashcards and reading tons of books  helped them have a very early rich vocabulary but none of them could read before i taught them phonetically , asked those mamas they would tell you they cannot remember the time their kids could not read . I had to work with mine and it wasn't all the time fun , hey didn't like it all the time only because they were older and they wanted to do something else . Now of course we forgot all about it and tina is amazing reader, but i am going through the same with Matti , i will need few months and he will be a reader also .xxx viv

[Mandabplus3]

Oh yes Bella, if I had another child ( with all my experience and wisdom  ) I would definately teach them to swim from birth! For your first child putting their head under water would be just about the scariest thing in the world, but by the forth child....dunk Em! 

[PokerDad]

Confession...

I have a hot tub that I've never used. My brother came to visit last weekend and fixed some broken pipes in it and I wasn't planning on getting it up and running, but due to this thread, I'm going to spend the time, money, and resources to get it up and running.

I'll just keep the temp at around 90 or so and use it as a pool for immersion training. If I do the 10 day program, as outlined in that book I mentioned, I'll need to face a lot of fear - I have to be comfortable putting PokerCub through some not so fun moments (though the progression attempts to minimize this).

Perhaps I'm not alone in mentioning this, but I sometimes feel as though I'm a jerk of a father when I make him do things he's not entirely happy doing (such as when I make him go down his crawling track while I'm still warming a bottle)... this might cause me to really feel overbearing... I swear I'm not! 

PS... I'm secretly fearful of ear infections. As a swimmer, I've had swimmer's ear and I just don't need little PokerCub to come down with something like that at this stage - it could be detrimental on so many levels (from language acquisition to discomfort for us parents)

[annisis]

Pokerdad,

My husband had serious ear problems as a child, and still has issues. He had tubes until he was twelve. He had surgery a little over a year ago, and it has been determined that he will very slowly go deaf in atleast one ear. He just got to where he could put his head underwater and "dive" head first into a pool last summer. He still has to ease himself into it, though. So my husband and I have an on and off struggle with the kids swimming.

Anyway, my point is that we avoided putting my son's head underwater and tried very hard to keep water out of his ears to no avail. He still had several infections within a year and wound up getting tubes. Sometimes, our precautions as parents don't help with the issue we are concerned with. They may only hold back the possibilities of growth. I am handling this very differently with my youngest.

[PokerDad]

annisis,

how are you attempting to avoid this very serious threat with your youngest?

do you feel swimming contributed to the older's ear issues? Did your husband's issues have any relation to swimming?

an ear infection, or infections could be the bane of EL efforts - I have wondered if early swimming is worth the risk (I know for fact we can get him swimming... but is the risk too high?)

[mybabyian]

HI annisis,
I am also curious about the infections.  Were the infections the type that are caused from water in the ear I am assuming?  I don't remember if it is inner or outer.  I think outer...

Anyway, I had tubes as a kid too and was worried my son would have my genetics in this respect.  When I asked my son's doctor once when he was getting over an ear infection if I could take him swimming he said that the two types of ear infections were totally unrelated...in a different part of the ear and that I could absolutely take him swimming. 

I think different people are prone to ear infections as in your family.  As I said I was very nervous for my son because of my history.  He had one bad ear infection that was very resistant to treatment and maybe one other ear infection that went away pretty easily.  But, he never had an ear infection from swimming.  So phew!  His doctor also said that on average a kid has eight ear infections before he is two...so I guess we have been lucky.  His doctor says the lack of ear infections is one of the reasons he is such an advanced talker.  He could actually hear as a baby.

A little unrelated to the swimming aspect of this thread but maybe it can help someone: 
According to our Pediatrician, studies have shown you can minimize the risk of an ear infection that kids often get from a cold by having them sleep with their head elevated.  So whenever my son was sick he would sleep in his bouncy chair which kept his head up a bit more than in the bed.  This also helped him sleep better because he could breathe better.  Maybe that is why we have been lucky with the ear infections.

As far as swimming goes I have been taking my son underwater since he was 2 months old (maybe 1 month) and he has never had an ear infection from it.  We progressed in a gentle way as described in Doman's book by first trickling water over the face, then more water, then the shower, and then fully under.  So don't think you have to do anything they are uncomfortable with.  It is a nice easy progression and it can be done pretty quickly.

If I could do it again, I would do the floating aspect differently which we still have not mastered.  I would have him lay in the bath tub with very little water in it so that he felt supported by the tub and then slowly fill up the water so that he would float a little but still feel supported by the tub.  Over a period of time I think we could have progressed to a full float this way.  He is too old for this now as he can just sit up.  Maybe for the next baby we’ll do it this way.

I wouldn’t use the floating ring as it doesn’t have the baby’s ears in the water.  This is the part that freaks the kids out the most so I am not sure it is really helping that much. 

[Korrale4kq]

My sons first bath with me was when his cord stump fell off. I immersed him in water and he loved it. He "swam" around in the tub like a little fish. That is when it dawned on me that he had been swimming since he was a fetus. It was more natural for him. I had deep baths with him for a long time. He used to swim within the limitations of tub. Eventually he was floating his back independently and pushing his legs off the side of the tub to shoot himself into me. This strengtening move may have contributed to his early walking and his ability to hold himself up at 3 months holding onto something.

Due to not having access to a pool James has barely been in the water since. We went to the pool only 3 times last summer when James was 1.5. By the second time we were in the pool my husband and I were able to throw him under the water and he would swim about 10 feet back and forth between us.

A year later and no swimming adventures in between James has been in the pool another 3 times this summer. He was more timid in the water this year. And he does not enjoy going under so much. But he swims independently with a water wing shirt. I am not a fan of water wings, but my pool won't let me have the back floating swim device with the removable pads that I want.
 I do think James does swim well considering the few times we have been in the pool and I think it is because of the exposure he had as a baby.
So what I am trying to say to Pokerdad is that no time is too soon.

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