Irish Times Tuesday 5th August 
Mary Kenny uses a doll to give instructions to mothers with their babies at her baby swimming class at Leisureland, Salthill, Galway with, from left: Haizi and her daughter Yike Cai, Mary Geoghegan and her son Sean, Brid Keane and her son Fionn Ennis and Emer Slancova and her daughter Jana..
There is a debate as to whether babies younger than one year should be taken to the swimming pool, writes Fiona Tyrrell
BABY JANA joined an infant swimming class when she was five months old. Now, after just four sessions playing "splish splash", "float on my back", and "baby surfing" she is kicking around the pool with a nonchalant look on her face that says "ya, I'm a pro".Giving her child a natural introduction to water before she developed a fear of it was the main reason for joining the classes, says her mother, Emer Slancová.There is a debate as to whether babies younger than one year should be taken to the swimming pool, writes Fiona Tyrrell
"I am not a swimmer and my oldest child, who is a very good swimmer now, didn't start until she was five and we had to work hard to help her overcome fear of the water even at that age," she says.Mother and baby have been attending weekly classes at Leisureland pool in Galway, and Jana enjoys them so much that Emer says she now understands the words "swimming" and gets excited when she sees her swimsuit.
"Swimming is therapeutic and is a great aerobic sport. I wanted to give her those opportunities from the start. It is also a lovely way to build trust between parent and child," she says.When it comes to swimming, it is a case of "the earlier the better", according to Charlotte Parker, director of education and development with Swim Ireland, the governing body of swimming in Ireland.She encourages parents to bring babies to swimming pools, as soon as it is safe to go into the water which, she says, is from four months on.
The benefits of infant swimming are numerous, according to Parker - exercise for both parent and child, parent-child bonding and socialisation, not to mention water safety skills and the life-long physical, social and psychological payback that swimming offers.
The programme uses games and nursery rhymes to help children feel safe, comfortable and confident in the water at a very early age, according to Parker. "Like playgroup but in water," is how Lucy McDonald describes her baby and parent classes at the National Aquatic Centre in Blanchardstown in
Kicking, splashing and encouraging a child to get wet are the main features of any baby swimming class, says McDonald, who has been giving baby swimming classes since 2003. She encourages babies to blow bubbles and get parents to wash the babies' faces, dip their ears and sprinkle water on their noses.When children have advanced, she will do jumping exercises which involve children jumping into their parent's arms, or even into the pool. Songs such as "splash mammy" or "humpty dumpty falls" accompany the exercises.
"Children naturally don't like putting their faces in water because they don't feel in control and will automatically breath water up their nose. One of the aims of the classes is to help children feel confident so that they will automatically breath out rather than in when their face is under water."Many parents come to the class with the misconception that a child can swim under water, but this natural reflex is lost within a couple weeks of birth, she adds.
Attaining water safety skills is a big motivation for parents looking for baby swimming classes, according to Galway-based teacher Mary Kenny."The idea is if a child ever fell into water they would not panic and would know how to make their way up to the surface," she says.
Mary Kenny runs a four-week programme at Leisureland pool in Salthill, which covers floating, playing with toys in the water, submerging and baby body surfing using kick boards.The aim is to foster water confidence, promote bonding and have fun, she says.
Mary Kenny also runs baby massage courses in Galway and says that while her massage courses are solely attended by mothers and babies, dads are increasingly common at swimming classes.There are conflicting opinions on when it is appropriate for babies to be brought into a swimming pool. Mary Kenny takes babies as early as six weeks, but prefers to take babies after their first round of vaccinations.Swim
Swimming in a pool would be much more enjoyable for all concerned when a child has the verbal skills to interact and respond to the experience, she says. She points to the fact that until children are physiologically and anatomically able to lie flat in a pool they won't be able to learn formal skills.
Responding to links made by one study between asthma among children and swimming pools, she points out that most babies and children spend very limited amounts of time in the actual pool environment.She does voice what she terms "gentle concerns" about formal baby swimming classes, saying that they are just another barrier between parent-child bonding.
"What they do is put another person between the child and the experience, someone who is interpreting the child's experience for them," she says.
Parent and baby will have a much richer experience by splashing around themselves, she says.
• Galway Baby Swim 087-964 1246 or see www.edenmassagegalway.com
© 2008 The Irish Times
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