Infants in Pool Controversy: American Academy of Pediatrics Has Big Concerns

What a timely topic for us SquidKid readers: The San Francisco Chronicle wrote a big story about the controversy behind teaching infants to swim last Friday, which included interviews from the very popular La Petite Baleen infant swim school and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The article can be found here.

Basically, the Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement in 2006 that concluded children are not developmentally ready for formal swimming lessons until after their fourth birthday.

A neurodevelopmental pediatrician, Dr. Marilyn Bull, who chaired the academy’s committee, made some interesting and hard-to-argue points in the article:

“Teaching swimming [that] early gives parents the potential to assume their children have become drown-proof. Do they really want to reduce their children’s fear of water at that age? If there’s one thing we’ve learned over time, parents tend to overestimate their own child’s cognitive skills and underestimate their physical abilities.”

Thank you, Dr. Bull, for being so forthright. I’ve been doing a nice job dancing around these issues, because I am a swim teacher and it is my job to teach. Recap for your newbies: We have been talking about the Pro’s & Con’s of starting your child swimming early, found in Part 1, Part 2, and then I wrote another entry about starting way young (younger than six months).

The very reason I approached the SquidKid posts on the subject using the term Pro’s & Con’s is because from an instructor’s perspective, the trepidation is caused from exactly what Dr. Bell sited: An inability for parents to see the depths of the dynamics behind swimming, water, and safety. Parents for the most part aren’t experienced swim teachers or even water parents/people.

Before you agree or disagree, I have to ask if you get into the pool with your child on a regular basis. Not just summers, either, but at least two times a week for exercise or family fun. By looking at the issue from inside the water, you can better understand where all sides are coming from, including your own. If you better understand all the angles and perspectives, you’ll have a better, safer swimmer. Isn’t that the goal?

Obviously I’m for schools like Le Petite Baleen. No matter who uses it, the term “drown-proof” is a false one in my opinion, as if you can stop any person of any age from ever drowning. I could drown tomorrow, and I’m a swim instructor. The issue is more if you can “panic-proof” a person. I don’t feel small children can be panic-proofed; they might calmly turn over onto their backs if they fell into a pool, but not be physically able to climb out of one. That is why I personally would not let my child go to a pool party without me (but with adult supervision) until they were about 8 years of age.

In general, I think this is an issue that parents want to have a complete sigh of relief about, and I question whether or not it is an issue you can ever have a sigh of relief about it. You can just know more about it, including your little swimmer and how he/she ticks (or swims). This you cannot do from the pool deck.

As always, I would be very interested in hearing what you have to say — especially after reading the Chronicle article!