[angie29ae]

I just had a horrable experience. My 15 month old son almost drowned about half an hour ago but thank God he is okay! I don't know how I would have ever forgave myself if something would have happened to him. He didn't swallow much water but I don't want to take any more risks so I am now considering teaching him how to swim. But I don't know how to swim myself, so I thought it would be something nice to try together for our safety as well as for the fun of learning something new. I heard that it is better to teach them as babies. So my question is; Does anyone know about any place in New York city where I can get swimming lessons for babies? I would really appreciate it.

[Becca1025]

I don't know any places in New York, but I have been a life guard for some years now and we teach swim lessons from 1 yrs-12yrs and for the one year olds we usually just start by teaching them to WANT to get into the water. Put toys and floaties everywhere for them to play. Sometimes we would get straws and ping pong balls. They would go around blowing the ball with their straw. After we would get them used to the water, we would teach them to go underwater. Show your child how to hold his/her breath for instance you say "One Two Three" and show your child how you hold your breath and not breath. After your child gets that then you hold your baby, jump up and down three times counting to three and on the third time go underwater for a few seconds then jump back up. If your child has problems with that and swallows water then you need to show them how to hold their breath again as you did before. Then after they can get their head underwater you then teach them to float on their back. You show them first, lay on your back with your arms stretched out and your legs far apart (we call it the starfish because you look like a starfish doing this). When your child tries this help them lay on their back in the water then make sure you keep your arm under their back in case they get scared (which in most cases they do). Then after all this is done, start teaching the doggy paddle (they need arm floaties or a life vest for this). Just show them how you do your doggy paddle, then they learn that qucikly, most of them already know how to do it. Then to usually end our clases, we let them jump of the diving board with their lifejackets on and doggypaddle to one of us guards who are in the pool(thats usually for the three and four year olds) as a completion of the cours. That cours I just explained to you is the courses for 1-4 year olds. IT's a parent baby course where the parents participate and work with their children. The main thing with teaching babies to swim is get them used to the water and to like it and to WANT to swim. Goodluck