28. February 2023 3 min read

Why go swimming with your baby?

Babies may still be tiny and only just discovering the world, but in water they feel like fish! Even diving underwater they feel no panic at all, only sincere curiosity.

Children like water

After all, babies spend 9 months growing in their mother’s womb in amniotic fluid, as if in a pool. So they are born with the ability to swim and with a diving reflex.

Piret Nuut, swimming coach at the Ujume Koos swimming club based at Mustamäe Elamus SPA, explains that between the 3rd and 6th month of life the diving reflex disappears and has to be learned again. Some children start diving as babies and keep it up in the future, while another child may refuse it at some point. The most important thing in a swimming lesson, however, is becoming friends with water, playing in the water environment and contact with the parents. It is important that the parents are not afraid, because for children this is a natural skill.

The aim of children’s swimming lessons at the beginner stage is to learn to adapt to water through play and to support the child’s readiness to acquire swimming skills.
Through playful activity children acquire versatile skills for coping in water and near bodies of water, the ability to overcome water-related fears and to enjoy the water.

To prepare for diving, all parents can do a lot at home. How to do it?

Wet your hand and draw it across the child’s face
Then drip more water onto the head
After that you can try pouring water over the head with a small cup
You can also take a shower together
When the child no longer reacts uncomfortably to water being poured, they are ready to dive

What happens in a baby swimming lesson?

Baby swimming lessons always begin with a song in which everyone is greeted. Then it is time to train.

Piret Nuut explains that everything is easier to do in the pool. The baby’s impulses are followed – if they want to turn onto their back or tummy, they are allowed to do so. Swimming develops turning, grasping and other skills.

When they have had enough of swimming, teacher Piret brings out the life raft, and climbing onto it is an exciting change from which to dive into the water to the sound of a song.

Then come exciting exercises such as the aeroplane. After that the children are stood upright, including those whose legs do not yet carry them. In the pool this is easy.

Of course other babies are exciting for babies, and there is plenty of splashing about in the water too, which is an experience in itself.

The lessons are run by the Nord sports club and the Ujume Koos swimming club.

At Mustamäe Elamus SPA the swimming lessons are run by the Nord sports club and the Ujume Koos swimming club. The swimming lessons are meant for small children aged 4 months to 4 years. The lesson is playful and fun, and innovative, modern toys and equipment are used.