swimming — Babylicious by Figur8

Ogival Water Wings – Swimming Arm Bands for 2 Year Olds

July 23, 2011 by Shen-Li 12 Comments

Gareth loves water. He goes nuts every time there is an opportunity to play in water. When we were staying at a hotel, his favourite place was in the bathroom where the bath tub was. During our recent trip down to Singapore, the first thing he did when he got into the room was run into the toilet and climb into the bath tub fully clothed.

Although I initially bought him a neck float in an effort to teach him to swim, he quickly outgrew the usefulness of the neck float. After a while, he didn’t enjoy wearing it any more so we ended up “carrying” him in the water since he was too young to use arm bands and he didn’t like the ring floats or those baby floats that he had to sit in. “Carrying” him worked well for a spell but recently, he has been trying to push us away to gain his freedom in the water.

Being completely fearless around water, he is a lot more reckless compared to Gavin at this age and many times more likely to run into trouble in the pool because of that so I figured it was time to get him some arm bands. The smallest arm bands are made for children who are at least 2 years and above but I figured since he is a big boy for his age, arm bands were better than nothing. With arm bands, it is also a little easier on the person handling him in the pool.

The main problem with arm bands for a younger child is that it requires some experience with balancing for the child to keep his head above the water. Without that experience, a child with arm bands can still go under – which was what happened with Gavin when he was very young. It was the result of that single experience of having his head under the water for a brief moment that put him off deep water for the longest time. I figured that Gareth, being more adventurous, would take such experiences in stride.

While we were looking for arm bands, we found the following modified arm band by Ogival called “Water Wings”:

It is not a complete ring. It is more like a half ring attached to two arm bands. It is designed for children age 2-6 years. I tried it on Gareth and it works well. He can balance on his own in the water without assitance (although if he is around an older brother who is busy making tidal waves in the swimming pool then his head can still go under so constant surpervision is still required).

The problem with a lot of other floats is the sensation of being “restricted”. This float was tolerated by Gareth because it gave him a little more mobility and freedom of movement in the water. It is difficult to slip on though. The easiest is to partially inflate the arm bands, slip on them on your child’s arms and then blow them up again. The only problem with this float is that the part that sits under the arm floats keeps flipping forwards because of the design. Unfortunately, I cannot offer a better explanation than that because Gareth wouldn’t stay still long enough for me to get a picture. It doesn’t affect his ability to float, though, so it isn’t a big fault.

The Water Wings costs about RM20 from Jusco.

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Filed Under: Products, Sports & Exercise Tagged With: children, floats, swimming

How do you Teach a Baby to Swim – Part 2

October 9, 2010 by Shen-Li 3 Comments

These are notes from “How to Teach Your Baby to Swim” by Douglas Doman. Read Part 1.

Where?

If you’re starting with a newborn, you can begin your swimming lessons in the bath tub. The water should be deep enough to cover you up to your chest when sitting. If you’re starting with an older child, you may have to get an inflatable pool (something like the Swim Center Ocean Reef Pool for a younger child, or the Intex Easy Set 8-Foot-by-30-Inch Pool Set for an older child) or you can go straight to a swimming pool if you have access to one. We started in the swimming pool because we don’t have a bath tub at home.

Balancing

Start with cuddling. This helps your baby to feel loved and secure. When ready, let your baby rest his chin on your shoulder and slowly begin to release him so that he is learning to balance on his own. Your arms are in readiness to catch him if he loses his balance so his head doesn’t go under. You can also let him practice holding himself up in the water by using your as the stabilising object.

Floating on the Back

Floating on the back is an excellent water survival skill to have because it gives your child something he can do which will keep him safe if he accidentally falls into water. However, most babies don’t like being on their backs and may resist this position (yet another reason why it helps to start young). The key here is to take it easy and build up your baby’s tolerance slowly. Over time, he will slowly adjust to it and eventually begin to enjoy floating on his back. To help him feel comfortable, you can support his head with one hand and use your other hand to touch his leg or arm for reassurance. The aim is to eventually have him floating on his own.

Blowing Bubbles

Start by showing your baby how to blow bubbles under the water. Let your baby touch your mouth and the bubbles as you do this. Eventually, after a week or more, your baby may try to blow bubbles under water as well. Encourage this with lots of enthusiasm and hugs.

It was interesting to note an experience that happened with the boys. One day I was trying to teach Gavin to blow bubbles in the water while Gareth observed. A day or two later when Gareth was sitting in his little bath tub in the shower, he dipped his head into the water and started blowing bubbles. I never really taught him to blow bubbles (at least, my instruction was never directed at him). He just happened to be watching and he caught on to the idea on his own.

How do you get your baby to hold his breath? This has always been one of my concerns with teaching a baby how to swim. Sure they talk about the swimming reflex – that babies will naturally hold their breath under water – but what if your baby is already past that stage?

Bobbing Up and Down

Douglas Doman shares something one mother told them – if you blow gently at your baby’s face, he will naturally hold his breath. So what you can do is gently blow at your baby’s face to encourage him to hold his breath before dipping his mouth and nose under the water.

Begin the process of bobbing up and down by slowly lowering your baby into the water until he is submerged up to his chin. You can also make it a game by lifting baby up into the air and then allowing him to dip into the water up to his chin. Make the game fun and don’t forget to laugh and share hugs. You want to teach your baby that this is fun.

Then teach him to go under until the water covers his mouth. You want him to learn not to swallow water. This is probably a better activity to do at home rather than in a public swimming pool filled with chemicals in the water. If your baby is anything like mine, he will experiment with drinking the water. Once he gets the hang of going under up to his mouth without drinking water, teach him to submerge up to his nose without inhaling water.

Progress at your child’s pace. Once he gets better, you can try releasing him into the water and letting him kick himself back up to the surface. Be aware of your child’s ability to hold his breath under water and be ready to intervene if he needs help. This is about as far as we’ve gotten so far (although Gareth hasn’t actually experienced submersion yet).

Filed Under: Sports & Exercise Tagged With: Exercise, Sports & Exercise, swimming

How do you Teach a Baby to Swim? Part 1

September 29, 2010 by Shen-Li 3 Comments

How to Teach Your Baby to Swim is written by Douglas Doman.

I had all the best intentions to teach Gareth to swim from as early as possible. I even bought him the special neck float. Up until recently, it was another one of those activities that I really wanted to do with the boys but could never find the time to get serious about it. So this is me getting serious. I went out and bought the book by Douglas Doman.

I scanned the chapter headings of the book in the store and thought it would be a handy book to get because it is divided into sections to help you teach your child to swim from birth to age six. I had assumed that meant that you could teach a child how to swim using the methods described as long as he is under six years old. Unfortunately, there is a bit of continuity between the chapters. Each higher age group builds upon skills learned earlier so if your child is just starting out, it means having to start from scratch. This works fine for an older child who is able to take instruction, but it gets a little tricky with a child between 6 and 12 months old, like Gareth.

Although both boys love the water, I find Gareth a lot more adventurous compared to his brother. At this age, he is willing to do a lot more in the water than his brother was. In fact, he is still willing to do a lot more in the water compared to his brother. Displaying such eagerness every time he sees water, I felt I could not pass up this opportunity to try to teach him about swimming.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, babies have a dive reflex so that they do not inhale water when they are beneath the surface. This reflex is present anywhere from birth up to one year. Gareth, unfortunately, has started to choke on occasion when his head goes under so I get nervous about trying to teach him to dive. Although he has been under a couple of times and does not appear phased by it, I find it difficult to intentionally dunk him under the water to encourage him to hold his breath.

Nevertheless, it hasn’t stopped me trying to teach the boys how to swim…

Some of the things I’ve been working on with them:

floating on their backs
blowing bubbles in the water
balancing
running under water

The following are very brief notes from the book “How to Teach Your Baby to Swim”. I seriously recommend getting a copy of the book and reading it yourself before attempting this with your children. Alternatively, try to attend a professional lesson on teaching babies how to swim. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, but as with all things that involve water and children – safety first.

As with all early learning activities, make sure there are lots of cuddles, laughter and fun in the activity. The first lot of activities are done with newborns, but you can also do them with an older child. With newborns, you can begin your program in a bathtub. Unfortunately, we don’t have a bathtub big enough so we’ve got to get to a pool to practice.

Here the summary of things your baby should be able to do by the time you are through with this segment:

balancing and floating with chin on mother’s shoulder
floating on the back
blowing bubbles
bobbing up and down
passing under a shower followed by going underwater (after the tenth pass under the shower)
jumping into the bath or pool
grasping the side of the tub or mother’s thumbs

It is important to make sure that your baby is well rested and fed before scheduling a swimming session. Also remember to bestow lots of hugs and kisses throughout the session.