by Claire Harrison
A guide to baby swimming lessons from Swimming Rocks
Being in the water is a wonderful sensory time for a baby. It helps develop cognitive and physical awareness, builds confidence and is a great bonding experience. You will be surprised by what your baby can achieve in a short space of time—whilst having lots of fun too.
Swimming is a magical experience for both you and your baby, one that often provides some of your most treasured memories.
Here we give you some of our ‘Top Tips’ for a great swimming experience.
Start lessons early
- Babies have a set of reflexes that gives them a natural affinity for the water. The gag reflex allows babies to hold their breath underwater and the grab reflex means they can even hold onto the side of the pool themselves. Because these reflexes go away as babies get a bit older, it’s wise to consider starting lessons early. By capitalising on these reflex abilities, instinctive action becomes controlled action later on.
- Current advice (including from the NHS) is that babies can start swimming from a very early age. Despite commonly held belief, you don’t need to wait until your baby has had their vaccinations to start swimming lessons.
- The earlier you start, the happier, safer and more confident your baby will be. The sessions will also help develop good motor skills as well as co-ordination.
Don’t stop just because it’s cold outside
- Swimming is a year-round activity—don’t let cold weather stop you. The continuity and consistency will prove valuable for your baby’s swimming progression. Just make sure you choose a pool where the temperature is 30 degrees. If it’s less than this, choose a baby wetsuit. We like the Babywarma wetsuits by Konfidence and the BabyWrap from Splash About.
- Take a towel for you and another for your baby. Even better, invest in a small toweling robe for yourself. You’ll be glad of the warmth when getting your baby changed after the lesson.
Some helpful advice for your lessons
- Don’t worry if your baby doesn’t like the water straight away. Smile, persevere and encourage and they will get there very soon.
- Your baby will look to you for cues. Relax and enjoy yourself, and your baby will follow your lead.
- Choose a time that works with your routine and ideally wait about 30 minutes after a milk feed or an hour after a solid feed before you go into the pool.
- Take a drink or small snack, or feed your baby after the lessons. Learning to swim is thirsty work!
- Put a neoprene ‘happy nappy’ over the top of your baby’s normal swim nappy. This will avoid any unexpected explosive poo incidents and prevent lessons being cancelled whilst the pool gets cleaned. These are available from both Konfidence and Splash About.
- You don’t have to be a good swimmer to attend swimming lessons with your baby, but inform your instructor before your lessons and they can offer you and your baby extra assistance if needed. Better still, take the opportunity to take some swimming lessons yourself!
- Understand your provider’s lesson program and talk to your instructor about what you want to achieve. At Swimming Rocks there is a lot of emphasis on water safety in the lessons. Making sure a baby can turn, float and get themselves to the side with ease are all part of their lesson ‘milestone’ progress.
- We found that parents often didn’t know what they can expect to achieve at each development stage, so we have designed a take-home pack detailing these milestones, plus helpful hints and tips and a guide to making bath time easy! Ask your provider if they do the same, or email us and we’ll send you ours.
And finally, make bath time fun
- ‘It’s raining, it’s pouring…’ A little plastic cup with a few holes in the bottom makes a lovely little rain shower. Tickle those tummies and toes whilst gradually moving up the shoulders, back of the head and eventually baby’s face and nose.
- Bring a favourite bath toy along to your lesson to associate a positive water experience.
- Bath time is fun time. Remember to use the same commands, prompts and songs from your lessons at home too.
Claire Harrison is the founder of Swimming Rocks. Swimming Rocks have a fantastic reputation as one of London’s best swimming lesson providers. They run baby and toddler lessons every day of the week from three locations in Chelsea, South Kensington and Golders Green. They offer a FREE trial lesson to everyone wanting to test their lessons before booking. For more information, visit the Swimming Rocks website, email [email protected] or ring them on 07557 051 904.
