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Safe Swimming for Babies
Author: Dr. Anna Kaplan
With summer coming up, this is a good time to think about water safety. Some parents choose to have their young children take swimming lessons, even infants. Is this safe? Is it useful for young children?
Children cannot learn actual swimming until they are at least four to five years of age. There have been very few studies on younger children, and there is really no good information to indicate that babies under a year old can retain anything from lessons. Children between one and four years of age may be able to learn enough to help, should they fall into the pool. However, it is absolutely essential that no parent should think that swimming lessons means a toddler or young child is safe around a pool. Young children must be supervised with someone in the water. The most swimming skills can give a child is a few more seconds for you to rescue her if she falls in.
Even though infants and small children cannot really learn to swim, there is no reason not to let them get used to being in the pool and enjoy the water, provided it does not give them, or their parents, the wrong idea about pool safety.
Some parents have heard that babies can drown from swallowing too much water during their swimming lessons. It is true that they can swallow a lot of water if not watched carefully, but they will not drown. No one can drown by drinking water. Drowning means that a person’s lungs have filled up with water. Water must be inhaled into the breathing tubes, and then into the lungs.
The danger of drinking too much water is called “water intoxication” (the water in the body is mixed with salts, and other things, in just the right proportions). If someone drinks plain water without salt far beyond what is needed, the concentration of salt in the blood and body fluids can drop dangerously low. This can be fatal.
There were some reports of water intoxication in babies during swimming lessons in the 1980’s. At that time, it was considered very rare. It only occurs in babies submerged for very long periods, and they are allowed to swallow water. There is no good reason to submerge a baby. If brief submersion is part of “swimming lessons,” you or the teacher should be holding onto the baby and bringing her right back up. If your child is swallowing water, stop submerging her. Keep her head above the water or take her out of the pool.
If you are watching your baby, and take her out if she starts swallowing water, she will not become water intoxicated. Older children are better able to stop themselves from swallowing water, but should still be watched.
Water intoxication is very unusual because the body has protective mechanisms that tell a person to stop drinking. When that message is absent or ignored, water intoxication can occur. This can happen to people with psychiatric conditions. There are also a couple of medical problems that can cause water intoxication.
Fatal water intoxication has happened to adults during water-drinking contests when they ignore the messages sent by the body. The initial symptoms are very general, and include weakness, vomiting, and restlessness. This can proceed to seizures, coma, and even death. These symptoms appear 30 minutes to a few hours after drinking excessive amounts of water.
The most important thing to know about babies and pool safety is that there must be a barrier between all small children and the pool, no matter their age, and no matter if they have had swimming lessons. They cannot be allowed near the pool unsupervised, and should not be in the water without an adult.
You can take your baby into the water for fun, but she will not really learn to swim. Close supervision will prevent both drowning and water intoxication.
