Does anyone have any experience with “teaching your baby to swim” method of Glenn Doman. Have you read his book? Have you tried it? Thank you.
There are some classes that can teach babies to be safe in water. My sister is doing it with her 9 month old. She put video on youtube of it. It was amazing to see her little one go under and come up on her back. I’m not exactly sure of what all they teach, but I do know she said it is basically to teach her to turn on to her back and float if she falls in the water. After seeing it I can now understand how my sister can have peace of mind with the pool in the back yard. Her little one now knows how to at least turn over and float if she falls in. It’s not fool proof, but at least my sister has the knowledge that her little one is at least equipped with the training of what to do if she falls in.
I think I saw a video of that demonstration before.
Can you post a link to your sister’s?
Ayden was 9 months old when he was taught how to roll on his back and float to save himself in the water, using ISR (Infant Swimming Resource) self-rescue technique. Back in May, ISR was featured on the Today show. If you visit www.infantswim.com you can view the video’s and locate an instructor near to you. We had a wonderful experience with ISR and will continue the program. To some I know this program can be a senstative discussion. Let me know if have any questions about it and we could start a new thread discussion 
the video is 10 minutes long and is tedious to watch for the first 8 so I suggest just forwarding to the end and watching the last minute or so, that’s where the instructor really get’s her to do what she’s trained to do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnsDd_gUdwE
Akgard, thanks for that excellent video! INCREDIBLE!! That’s really wonderful - wish I had come across this earlier!
Littlemapuz, thanks for the link to ISR!!
everyone, in addition to watching Akgard’s video, do check out the Today Show video in the ISR site:
http://www.infantswim.com/news-and-events/todayshow.html
Excuse me now while I go look for my swimming gear…
(Looking at Felicity with evil grin… :biggrin: )
Great video on infantswim.com
In U.S. statistics, there are more accidents with young children in homes with a pool than homes that carry firearms.
I read that in a book called “Freak-onomics”
I think this is an extremely crucial skill especially if you own a pool in your home.
And like the video stresses, PLEASE DON"T TRY THIS AT HOME!
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing that video! :biggrin: I was personally amazed at how young these children are, but I’m actually happy that they are being taught a vital survival skill.
To share a bit of experience, my dad (who used to be a competitive swimmer) also taught us how to float and swim at a very young age. I remember that by age 4 I knew how to doggy paddle, and that my dad always said that swimming is one of the most important skills we should learn.
My parents told me that as a baby, they made me get used to the sensation of being in water, and I had known how to float on my back before I was two. It was just one of those natural things that my parents taught us as little children, and to date, I am still amazed to find some of my friends afraid of being in the water because they never learned how to swim. I think that as a skill, learning how to swim (or at least stay afloat) is very important - and I must say that I have grown up never being afraid of the water.
I think that when I start having children, I may do the same; only this time it could be far more convenient because there are actual schools such as Infant Swim that can help. :wub:
On You Tube there are many many swimming videos with swimming lessons for infant and kids and also videos of infant self-rescue.
There is a great site on you tubu concerning HOW TOs - the official YouTube channel of Expert Village, the world’s largest how-to video site. All Expert Village videos are part of longer series, so if you find a video you like, visit www.expertvillage.com to view more in that series.
Embedding on You Tube on their site is disabled by request - so I can not really put an example here, but search for “You Tube swimming lesson” and you will find the videos.
A least some exaples of titles of the videos you can find:
- How to Teach Kids to Swim : Beginner Swimming Lessons for Children : Going Underwater with an Infant : Kids’ Swimming Lesson
How to Teach Kids to Swim : Beginner Swimming Lessons for Children : Teaching a Child the Back Float : Kids’ Swimming Lesson
How to Teach Kids to Swim : Beginner Swimming Lessons for Children : Teaching a Child the Backstroke : Kids’ Swimming Lesson
How to Teach Kids to Swim : Beginner Swimming Lessons for Children : Returning Infants to the Wall : Kids’ Swimming Lesson
How to Teach Kids to Swim : Beginner Swimming Lessons for Children : How to Hold an Infant in the Water : Kids’ Swimming Lesson
and many many more! I find it very usefull. :yes:
Infant swimming (http://youtube.com/user/InfantSwimming) offers 9 vidoes - 4 of them as an examples:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aseQsDBJS6c
http://youtube.com/watch?v=nI_XzNfxjlY
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-cn-dSZEjjQ
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uQhI7_rV4Ro
This is their website www.infantswim.com
Here are some examples of different sources but again there are much more on You Tube. If you are really interested search on You Tube for swimming.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2vlv450qcNE
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xohxTLV9wCQ
I started to attend swimming classes with my baby-girl when she was about 6 months old. We were supposed to teach her to hold the breath under water by using one certain word (depends on parents which they choose) and always before splashing some water on her face say the word. Later (alwas after saying the word) we were supposed to pour a cup of water on her and even later put her under water. We followed it (in the bath tub every day and once a week in a pool) and it worked. At about 12 months (to be honest I do not remember exactly) she was pretty OK swimming under water.
There are great resources on the You Tube concerning swimming. I posted some examples of You Tube videos here:
http://forum.brillkids.com/general-discussion-b5/teaching-your-baby-how-to-swim/msg2719/#msg2719
[EDIT - both threads merged! - KL]
Thanks for all those great videos, Martina! You really are a YouTube pro! :tongue2:
I gotta show Felicity these videos - she loves getting into the pool but still gets upset when she gets water on her face!
Well! See what I miss when I go to work for a weeek! :ohmy: GEESH! Thanks AKGard (AKA my sister!!!) for posting Matteson’s swim lessons! She will “graduate” this tuesday and I can not say enough great things about our instructor and the program! I would never leave Matteson alone by water, but I now have the confidence that should I turn my back for a second, she will be ok. We are looking forward to next summer when she will do “phase 2” of this program and then I will say that she knows how to swim; at 18 months!! If anyone would like additional information or personal testimony please don’t hesitate to contact me!
How much is it?
We got a 50% discount because a master swim instructor from Ohio drove to Michgan to train 2 other people. You do have to pay a one time national registration fee of $105 per child. Then a weekly lesson fee of $90 but I got it for $45 and our session went for 5 weeks.
I think the cost sorta depends on the instructor but the national fee is the same. We are paying $105 a week and really would have been done in three weeks, but Matteson got sick and missed a few days so it is taking us the full four weeks. 
Also, I know that my instructor also offers refresher courses for free so if I ever feel that maybe she’s forgotten a skill we can go back to her and “re-learn” it at no charge or even have a refresher course next summer.
Glad you joined this discussion! It’s amazing what Matteson can do now!! :yes:
What was it like in the beginning though? Was there lots of crying, and if so, was that hard to bear?
I had done some research on it and the company does a great job at educating parents on how the program works and what you can expect from the lessons and they do warn you that there WILL be crying. 
So I really went into the first lesson knowing she was going to cry and not like it. I kept telling myself that the people who developed this 40 some years ago have probably perfected this by now and if it wasn’t a proven method, people wouldn’t keep doing it, so just stick it out; it’s for Matteson’s own good! It really helped and by the middle of the first week I could tell that her crying wasn’t really panic but more of “complaining”. Truthfully, I’m glad that she cries when she is floating because if she ever did fall in while I wasn’t right there, I would hear her; if she wasn’t crying I’d never know anything was wrong!
I do have to admit that it is definatley a commitment. It is 5 days a week and you have to monitor your childs eating, sleeping and bowel movements every day and there are certain foods that are no-no’s for the duration of the course (like apples; apparently they cause bloating and no dariy 2 hrs before lessons, ect.) but like I said before, I put my trust in the fact that they have been doing this for 40 yrs and have a proven track record, there must be a pretty darn good reason to do all these things. :yes:
I am sooooo glad that we did this probably would have done it at double the cost. Just last year our family lost a little one to drowning and I swore then that my little one would know how to swim as early as possible!
Ayden cried/complained during every session too. There were a couple days that were hard for me as well. But when you actually see them roll over and floating on their back, it’s just amazing and worth the tears. I’ve been working with Ayden myself on getting him to enjoy the water and float him on his back. We will do the re-fresher classes next year.
Well this is a difficult post for me but I really felt I had to put it up.
Firstly let me say that I think teaching babies to swim is very important, and I took Ashley to classes when he was 6 months.
However… My Nan’s neighbour’s 2 year old daughter drowned last year in a very small amount of water in a paddling pool on their back deck. The mother is a swimming instructor, they live on the beach in Australia, the child was very comfortable in the water. I guess the point that I am making is that NOTHING beats constant supervision when it comes to safety around water.
I believe that any skill that gives a child a better chance if they fall in the water is TOTALLY worth it. So I do think the swimming classes are a positive thing. BUT… if they give the caregivers a false sense of security, this could be a negative thing. A child can drown in literally a few inches of water.
Sorry if I to bring the conversation down but this was a subject close to my heart so… please dont take offense. 
There was a local child who drowned like 8 hours after swimming. They said he must have swallowed a lot of water while swimming. He was fine all day, just complained of a headache. Then later that night he died. So yes, constant supervision is important, even for older children.