baby Jaiden is not sure about getting into that cold pool water
Jaiden is 9 months old today. Yesterday she had one of her first visits to the “big kids” pool. It was just daddy with both Jaiden and Jasmine, so I was a little limited in what we could do (I only have one set of eyes). Jaiden spent most of her time sitting on the edge of the pool, alternating between kicking her feet in the water, and reaching down to splash with her hands. I also lowered her down into the water a couple of times; holding onto my hands; but I never let her go under. She seemed to like it, but did get a little scared the first time her feet weren’t touching anything.
I can’t remember exactly how old my other kids were when they learned to swim … but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t this young. I know that Johnathan and Jasmine with be taking swimming lessons this summer. It got me thinking; wondering, what are some of the best ways to teach a relatively young baby to swim?
Being a “fearless” dad, my first inclination is to just stand in the pool with her, let her go, and see what she does.
The main downside I see to this method is that if going under water scares her too badly, she might not want to go near the pool again any time soon. The upside though, is that if I teach her to swim this way, if she ever falls into a pool when no one is around, she’ll hopefully have the confidence that she can make it to the edge by herself.
I do remember with my other girls, one of things that made swimming easier is when they learned to float on their backs. As soon as they realized they could stop any time and float, they swam like fish.
Floating is probably where we’ll start.
I was reading a few posts on this forum: http://forum.birth.com.au/everyones-birthtalk/77019-swimming-lessons.html
It looks like my main concern is trying not to let her go under too much until she learns to hold her breath.
Maybe we’ll get the chance to try a little bit tomorrow.
I’ll let you know what we learn.
Todd
p.s. and of course more posts on swimming will give me more chances to post pictures of Jaiden in her little swim suit 
Hi Todd,
Your a darn good photographer..
of course Jaiden truly helps the picture look
AWESOME!
Christina
Twitter: whoistodd
Hi Christina,
Thanks, I appreciate your kind words. Sometimes I think I should just do a photography blog, and nothing else. Pictures are what I really enjoy, words can sometimes be such a chore.
Hey seriously man, great photo! cute kid too, LOL
growing up in FLA, we learned to swim super early.
My mom has old films of me at the beach with her and I was splashing in the waves and getting rolled around in the surf like a rag doll.
I saw a 20-20 special on TV a few years ago where babies were swimming underwater like dolphins. LOL
AL
Twitter: whoistodd
Hi Allyn,
Yes, I think I’ve seen similar tv shows, if not that same one, that show very little babies swimming like fish. I’d like to get Jaiden doing that … lol, although getting her mom to agree to me throwing her in the pool could be a tough task
I think she will come across this quite soon
to my knowledge babies are better swimmers since before they are born they were 10 months living inside a liquid filled bag called the womb and nobody taught them how to swim at that time right..
-Ben.
Babies normally can. It’s our instinct to survive. However, unlike other parents, we don’t risk our child’s life just to rush learning. Constant practice is better. Even adults need to learn things step by step. Just like ATV racing. We need to learn the basics of