Swimming Lessons-submerging Head Under Water

My younger son never had any trouble dunking his head under, but my older son needed goggles to put his head under.

I started doing YMCA baby/parent classes this winter, and this is what we did with my son's age group (just under 2 yrs old).

The parent holds the child facing the parent, then says, "Bobby, you're going to go in the water now...1....2....3." On 3, the parent blows into the child's face to activate the child's breath-holding reflex. Then the parent gently skims the child's face across the surface of the water, barely submerging at all.

Later on, you progress from skimming the face across the water to doing a more submerged shallow J (as if the J was laying on its side).

Since then, he is always submerging his own face in the bathtub.

I understand your caution. the trust of your 3 year old is important to you. Is your son afraid to dunk? If not give it a try. If he is.....

I suggest you start like this. When in the bathtub at night start playing games where he puts his face just far enough in the water to blow bubbles. That can be fun and the face gets a little wet. Laugh that off. Then explain about holding his breath and have little face dips in the water. Have bath prizes ready. Eventually he will dunk himself. If he won't then he will accidentally fall in the pool or something and the face will go in. He will see it's okay. Just keep playing in the water.

I have taken mommy and me swim classes with both my kids from about 9 months on. The instructers always suggested to us to blow in their face hard before you dunk. A kids natural instinct is to suck in a bunch of breath and it kind of helps them learn to hold their breath for a bit. It works like a charm.

Secondly, in every class I have ever taken, they talk about reaction. Even if you are terrified, you cheer and smile and talk about the fun. You son will be able to tell that you are nervous and he will start to feed off that. At three, both of my kids could swim underwater unassisted. So I know he can do it. Just let him mama!

The way they start at our swimming lessons is blow bubbles. After they get that, blow bubbles with your eyes in the water. After that, dunking is a breeze.

Does he dunk his head in the water in the tub?My 20 month old puts her head under water in the bathtub? My now 4.5 year old since he could walk and we have been at the pool did not even like me catching him when he jumped in the water.
We found this
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterns-Puddle-Jumpers-Life-Vest...

It is one of the best things we spent money on. My son loved it because he was now allowed to jump into the water with out me having to catch him and I knew he would pop right back up. And he would have the ability to move naturally in the water. He did lessons last year, and is like a fish in water. But my family has always been around water and swim lessons ( I though they were a right of passage until I moved out of town and found out no everyone goes to swim lessons, lol)

So, if he is fearful of dunking, you need to talk him into it and show him how much fun it is. If you are .. then you need to get over it, or get someone else to bring him to lessons so he can learn and be safe.

Good luck

If he does not want to do it himself, I say just wait. He's not ready. Some kids have a hard time with that. My son really hated putting his head underwater till he was 5.5 yrs old. He was very sensitive about a lot of things (and still is!) and he was VERY uncomfortable doing that. As an infant/toddler he hated us washing his hair. He was afraid when water went on his face. His instinct if he put his head in the water accidentally was to suck in, in surprise. Well, that did not work well for him! He took swimming lessons every year but just did not put his head under much...hardly any. Then he outgrew it and now he swims like a fish (He is almost 9 now). I'd say he outgrew it around age 7. His sister is the opposite though. She liked to put her head underwater as a tiny baby! She had no fear...as a toddler she liked doing it. Now at age 3 she likes doing it...enjoys blowing bubbles...it just does not bother her.

Your baby won't drown with you right there next to him with your eyes on him. He can handle going under the under water for a couple seconds. Odds are he may come up crying...but that is ok. You are teaching him a life saving skill.

I have gone through infant swim classes with my 3 kids. (you can google ISR Swimming) My youngest was 9 months old when he was able to float on his back in the water unassisted for long periods of time. It was survival floating classes...NOT SWIM. My other 2 were about 2 years old when we did this method. It was one on one with a trained instructor. AMAZING!!

I personally would NOT encourage my kids to blow bubbles in the water during the learning phase. You do not want to encourage them to blow out their air supply. You want them to learn to quickly take in a breath before they go under. Therefore..they have more in their lungs for surviving a longer period of time.

YOU blow on his face..he should naturally take in a quick breath..then hold his breath. Then go under together and pop back up. Or gently put him under and bring him back up. Make it fun for both of you. Make a silly face when he comes up. This is NOT a technique from our infant survival swim classes. This is just something I would do with my kids for fun. We have a pool...we play a lot in the water.

Yes..you set the tone for the mood of the class. Supress any anxiety you have about swimming/water.

I can't stress enough how important it is for parents to teach kids how to swim. We have see and heard of too many drownings out here in CA. We are surrounded by pools,ocean,lakes,rivers,streams etc. Everyone should learn how to swim. The saddest is when an adult jumps in to save a drowning child...yet the adult can't swim...and both die.

Ok...I will get off my soapbox.

A though just came in my head. I remember having my kids practice in the bathtub. Peekaboo was fun...they went underwater after taking a big breath...then my head went down outside of the tub and we both popped up.

Good luck and best wishes!!

Youtube can be your friend. Search toddler swimming lessons on youtube and pick some videos that show what you are trying to do. He will see what he needs to do from a different perspective, and it might help you feel better too. :)

Is it HIM that needs to get used to dunking his head, or YOU? At two, he certainly don't have a drowning fear (and he's not going to drown while you HOLD him in the pool).

That being said, my son was swimming with me from the time it was warm enough to swim (5 or 6 months), so I guess I don't have the same fear about this that you might.

One thing that he really liked, and I've seen done with other little ones, is to hold them under the arms and kind of wave them back and forth in the water .... slowly side to side, side to side. Then add a little tilt so their ears go under the water and cheek gets wet on each side as you go. Then add a little dip so they go under and up to the left, under and up to the right etc.

That being said, at two he's got a lot more control of himself than a baby. You may not need to submerge him yourself. Sit him on the top step, stand in front of him. Put your face in a blow bubbles, and ask him to copy you. Chances are, if you don't stop him, he'll be willing to do it himself.

Good luck with this. You're a good mama for putting aside your own fear to let your boy grow.

T.

you don't say how old your son is. But when my daughter took her kids they had the babies going underwater at about 6 months old. She said that older kids moms just made it fun. jumping up and then down under. when standing right back up it was oohhhh and big smiles. if he sees you smiling he will smile. and your not taking him under and keeping him under just dunking and off you go. by the time the kids were about a year old she was giving them baths and just dumping the water straight on their heads to rinse shampoo off. he will be fine if you don't show fear. but if you tense up and go omg he will do the same.