So yesterday saw us take baby Ben for his first swimming lesson. Actually it was Jen, I got to watch from the side as she, and five other mums, got to play with babies in the water, not a float or lifebelt in sight.
The course is designed to teach babies to enjoy the water, and also take advantage of the baby dive reflex, just like when an adult’s air passage blocks during swallowing, a baby can block their throat so they don’t swallow water. This is why you often see babies swimming with their mouths open.
And so only a few minutes after getting in the pool, Ben was dunked. He wasn’t too impressed the first time, but second and third goes he was fine. By the end of the course he should be able to swim from Jen to me underwater.
Some of the other babies didn’t fare quite so well, and there was a fair amount of screaming in the half hour lesson.
Unfortunately all of these kind of courses are run during working hours so I won’t be able to attend all of them. However Jen and I are going to take him ourselves soon to put what we’ve learnt in to practice…
