The main advantages of such classes are:
- strengthening of the musculoskeletal system;
- development of the lungs and strengthening of the chest;
- development of large and small motor skills of the child;
- improvement of blood circulation in tissues and organs;
- strengthening the immune system due to effective quenching effect.
An important argument in favor of this technique is the presence of congenital swimming reflexes in the child, which persist in the first months of the baby's life. Note that the congenital reflexes gradually fade. So, approximately up to a month's age, reflex respiration is retained when water gets into the face, and up to three months - reflexes of automatic walking and crawling. It is swimming that helps to strengthen these reflexes!
When to start classes
Teaching your child's swimming can begin literally from birth, as soon as the umbilical wound heals (approximately from the 10th to the 15th day). Although the optimal time for conducting classes is to reach the age of one month of your karapuza. It is advisable to consult your pediatrician before starting the swimming lessons to exclude contraindications.
Preliminary briefing
So, you decided to teach your baby to swim! Now you need to decide in the choice of location for classes. I recommend to limit your own bathroom. Firstly, I do not recommend "going out" with babies in crowded places, and, secondly, your own bath is a more hygienic place for such activities.
Before filling the bath with water, it must be cleaned and rinsed with hot water. At first, I recommend additionally to pour the bath with boiling water, and when the baby grows up, you can do without this preliminary preparation.
The water temperature should not exceed 36ºC. Reduce it every two weeks by half a degree to 32ºC. In the process of learning to swim, do not create a "bath" effect, for which purpose keep fresh air from the adjacent rooms. The temperature in the rooms adjacent to the bathroom should be at the level of 20-24ºC. Do not allow a significant temperature drop!
It is necessary to swim with the baby 3-4 times a week with an interval for compulsory rest. It is advisable to conduct the procedure in the afternoon until about six in the evening, as later activities can have an exciting effect on the baby and prevent a quiet sleep.
The duration of stay in the water is determined individually. In the beginning, lessons should not be long (about 10 minutes). Later, staying in the water can be increased if the child enjoys the swimming process, bringing the training to 30-45 minutes.
Before the beginning of training I recommend to spend easy stroking massage of the whole body within 5-7 minutes.
We begin learning to swim
First month of classes
Initially, training is reduced to training in delaying breathing.
The main thing is to learn how to properly hold the baby. It is necessary to support the right breast with the right hand for the lower jaw, without touching the neck, and put the left hand on the back of the head. When swimming on the back, it is necessary to support the head with one hand, the other - the ass. After 1-2 weeks, you can instruct the baby to dive, scooping some water and watering it on the child's face. Do not forget all your actions to accompany pleasant intonation with comments like: "swim", "dive", "push off" ...
Second month of classes
After a month of training, you can practice diving with support. To do this, "diving" is reduced to watering the child's face with water and easy immersion for 1 second in the water. After a couple of weeks, the dive time is increased by another 1 second (the total dive time should increase to 3 seconds).
The third month of classes
This is a month of independent voyages! Having mastered all the "basics" of swimming, you can go to the most important stage of the early swimming technique.
If your baby is confidently under water for about 3 seconds, does not scream, is not afraid of water, you can start releasing your hands when diving. And by the end of the third month of training after starting diving without your hands, the baby can swim under water about 20-30 cm (while the duration of stay under water should not exceed 4 minutes).
After swimming
You have done a great job, a whole set of exercises! Now it is necessary to dry the body well, dress appropriately for the season. Ears must be dried with cotton wicks, which must be left for five minutes. And be sure to eat tight, 20-30 g more than usual!
If you are engaged with a child outside the house, then you should go out on the streets in the summer not earlier than 15-20 minutes after classes, and in the winter - not earlier than half an hour.Draw conclusions
Based on the foregoing, every parent can learn how to learn how to swim. And for this it is not necessary to be a professional instructor. In any case, from this technique, you will gain undeniable benefits: strengthen the muscular, nervous, immune system of the baby, and also turn the bathing process not into the routine procedure of "soaking" in a baby bath, but in a pleasant and useful process. Yes, and you yourself will get a sea of emotions, seeing how a little baby is swimming!