Familiarizing babies with pool water offers an unparalleled framework for learning, relaxation and play that brings numerous benefits.
The amniotic fluid of the placenta has no chlorine or filters, but it is what a newborn can most remind a newborn of swimming pool water. He has spent nine months in an aquatic environment, without contact with air. Water is the medium he knows best.
If as soon as the umbilical cord falls, he takes advantage of this familiarity with the water to get into the pool, the experience can be very enriching for both him and the parents.
Manel has just turned ten weeks old. He was just over three when he first got into the pool. “I brought it as soon as the cord fell off and, although it is still very small and a short time has passed, I see that it is already much more awake, as if it were more open to everything,” explains Sandra, who is the one who always accompanies her son to the pool.
Sandra had previously taken her daughter Carla, who at three and a half years old not only swims alone in the pool but also skis, speaks English and moves with an unusual ease in girls her age.
Watching Manel dive into the pool, helped by his mother, one realizes that the fear of water is not innate. The center’s monitor gives instructions to several parents with babies of months. The boy seems calm, moves his legs nimbly to propel himself, forward and looks at his mother with his eyes wide open. He experiences underwater motor sensations that he will then apply in his daily life.
WHAT IS SOUGHT WITH SWIMMING FOR BABIES?
Although some talk about swimming for babies, teaching swimming is not the goal. “What is sought is motor stimulation at an early age, giving the baby guidelines and sensations of movement that can then be used on the ground,” explains the monitor.
“As the sessions progress, the baby will gain autonomy, increase his confidence and develop his ability to survive.”
A baby from 0 to 3 months is usually quite still, but in the water, he moves his legs and arms, tones his back and learns to hold his head. The water makes it easy, because it floats naturally and has much more freedom of movement.
This early stimulation, which out of the water does not usually begin until five or six months, allows you to learn to sit, crawl, walk or climb much earlier.
APNEA REFLEX IN INFANTS
Another advantage of working with such young babies is that they still retain the apnea reflex. Children survive in the placenta without drowning because they close the glottis so as not to swallow water. That reflex is preserved until six months.
“With time and perseverance, this involuntary movement of the glottis, based on training it, becomes voluntary and the child’s ability to survive in the water increases. The longer it takes to start immersing, the more you will have lost that reflex and the harder it will be for you to learn it.”
By the age of three, they can usually start swimming on their own. At that age, most children experience their first contact with water when coinciding with the passage from nursery to school.
The typical sessions take place in a well-conditioned pool, with a chlorine-free disinfection system, and last about 45 minutes, although the little ones retire earlier, because they get tired and get cold:
- Parents walk first holding the baby by the armpits and looking at him while he experiences the sensation of floating and moving through the water.
- Then they turn it and hold it by the head with one hand.
- Next come the dives. The little ones put on a surprised face, but they seem to want to repeat.
Another benefit of these classes, and perhaps the most important, is that it strengthens the emotional bond between parents and children.