"Water Safety for Tots and Toddlers" by Beth Rodgers (Bella Baby, Nov 2014)

bethrodgbella
Nov 3, 2014
3 min read

Flying out of the Pensacola International Airport, passengers have a bird's eye view of the dominant feature of Northwest Florida — water. It's everywhere.

From the emerald Gulf of Mexico to the blue swimming pools that dot our area, we live in a place punctuated by waterways both natural and manmade, all of which present a significant health hazard to our children.

"Drowning is the No. 1 cause of death of infants and children, so learning to swim early is absolutely essential," says Coach Robin Heller, co-founder and executive director of Seastars, a program that "introduces swimming to children who might otherwise be unable to participate."

Seastars promotes health and safety for older kids, but what about lessons for infants and toddlers?

"Absolutely," Heller says. "The younger you introduce children to the water, the quicker they learn. I was in the water from the age of 6 months, so I never knew what a fear of the water even looked like."

Local parents have several options for parent/child classes: The YMCA, long recognized as a leader in swimming instruction, offers "Mommy and Me" year round in their heated indoor pool downtown. Classes are offered at the Nine Mile Swim Club off Pine Forest Road.

University of West Florida and Pensacola State College provide swim classes for kids ages 6 months to 3 years in indoor pools where kids can "begin to learn to swim and feel comfortable in the water."

For military families, NAS Pensacola offers three sessions for "Waterbabies" at Mustin Beach Pool during the summer.

While parent and child swim experiences are valuable, the purpose, according to UWF Aquatics, is to build "a high comfort level in the water while at the same time training parents in water safety and drowning prevention."

But these classes are not designed to waterproof your kids. Let's face it — if you are in the water with your child, they are not in any danger. The danger occurs when a door to a pool area is left open.

Experts point to the facts — a child can drown in very shallow water or when distracted parent or babysitter is nearby. Sadly, a child can drown in the time it takes an adult to answer a phone call.

Unlike traditional parent/child classes, proponents of the Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) ask this question: What happens if your child ends up in the water alone?

ISR was developed to train very young children "aquatic independence" by teaching "problem solving skills," says ISR teacher Carrie Glass. She and Heidi Wendt are available to parents in the Pensacola area who want their children to learn the ISR method, the"pediatric drowning prevention."Their website, infantswimpensacola.com offers footage as well as these statistics: Nationwide more than 250,000 toddlers have been ISR trained, preventing 800 potential drownings.

Glass says, "Our focus is survival. If a very small child falls into a pool, they are trained to go into a float."

Since they lack the strength required to grasp the edge of a pool, the child is taught to roll over, float on his or her back, and calmly wait for help, resting and breathing.

ISR teaches older children who fall into water to swim with their faces down and their eyes open as they aim for the side of the pool. Short private lessons are available at either a private pool or in your own home.

Glass is not only a teacher of ISR, she has trained her own children in this method: "My youngest is Valentine, 1½ years old, and she loves floating. Zoe is my 3-year-old, and she loves swimming all day in our pool doing the swim float swim sequence.".

Early swimming instruction is never wasted.