In the swim!

Swimming lessons can help children socialise, gain water confidence and learn other skills useful both in and out the pool. Lucy Atkins and Shilpa Chandran report. When two-year-old Elizabeth Jelley fell into the family swimming pool she managed to right herself, swim to the edge and hold on to the side.

She spent about four minutes alone in the 120cm-deep pool while her mother, Amanda, was searching for her.

Amanda found Elizabeth clinging to the side of the pool and calling her. She is convinced her toddler survived because of the swimming lessons she had had since she was eight months old.

"Most children drown because they panic when they fall into water," says swimming instructor Jess Thompson who teaches children to become familiar with water.

More parents than ever before are enrolling their infants - some at just a few days old - in swimming classes. Billed as a way for infants to gain water confidence, meet other babies and have some fun, swimming lessons, like most baby-centric activities, can be pricey, not to mention time consuming. Is it really worth it?

In Bahrain it is probably more important than ever to start children swimming as early as possible because almost every compound and apartment block boasts a swimming pool and some villages have easy access to the sea.

Swimming lessons at the Dilmun Club in Saar are extremely popular, so much so that there is a waiting list for places. Instructor Wedad Jaworski from Awali said: "I believe children need to be exposed to water as early as possible to ensure that later on in life they do not fear it. They need to become 'water confident' and be able to float and feel secure when their head is under water. After the age of five it's simply a case of learning the proper strokes and enjoying healthy exercise.

"If parents cannot enrol in classes they should take every opportunity to play with their children in a pool to help get them accustomed to being in the water."

Mother-of-three Mrs Cath Payne, 42, from Saar, takes her seven-year-old son Thomas every week for lessons and said: "It's a life-saving skill and the earlier they learn the better, in my opinion.

"It's so important if they spend a lot of time round the pool. The earlier they start the more naturally they seem to adapt. I started giving my children lessons from the age of three."

Suzanne Matthews, an educational consultant, whose son Simeon took a swimming course recently, says the benefits have been a huge surprise.

"I never would have believed I would watch my nine-month-old swim up from underwater by himself, take hold of the side of the pool and support his head out of water," she says.

"The skills we have developed have been incredibly useful outside the pool too. We can wash his hair in the bath without getting soap in his eyes using the word-association commands, and after learning the command to hold on in the pool he understood the same command on land."

There are more subtle effects, too. First-time mums, for example, who can be nervous with their babies, get skin-to-skin contact with their child, and with an experienced instructor taking responsibility and offering guidance, the experience can prove invaluable. That confidence can transfer itself on to dry land.

Classes can range from simple, relatively unstructured splashing around to more organised training schedules. In the latter, parents might learn how to hold a baby in the water without letting them drink it, and how to help them get used to lying on their backs.

As the babies grow more agile they learn to "monkey monkey" along the side - cling on and move around on their own. "It's fantastic, seeing a line of tiny babies, all supporting themselves on the rail completely independently," said Mrs Thompson. They can also learn to swim through hoops, walk over wobbly rafts, use long swimming floats as horses, and even learn to "holiday swim" - hold on to their parent's back as they dive down and glide along the bottom of the pool.

Up to the age of about 18 months, a baby's epiglottis will automatically close over and block the throat when it is submerged in water.

According to Ian McKinley, a paediatrician, this means that a properly supervised baby can be safely allowed to go under the water for short periods (for up to half a minute). However, some baby swimming experts fear that this involuntary action - sometimes known as the "gag reflex" or the "dive reflex" - is being misused by untrained teachers. "The slam-dunk effect is still going strong," says Mr Thompson. "There are teachers who put babies under the water willy-nilly.

"This may be dangerous, not to mention traumatic for the baby. Good instructors place the emphasis on teaching babies to hold their breath and go under the water voluntarily - if pushed, they may develop new fears rather than gain confidence."

Ann Hawley, who trains baby swimming teachers, agrees. She operates a five-second rule: never allow a baby's face to be submerged for more than five seconds.

Some parenting websites advise waiting until your baby has had its first bout of immunisations (at two months) before setting foot in a public pool. However, says Mr McKinley, "it is perfectly safe to take a baby swimming before their jabs, providing the water is warm enough - at least 32C for a baby under 12 weeks old or under 5.5kg, and 30C for a baby over 12 weeks or 5.5kg".

A baby's early vaccinations protect against infections such as diphtheria, pertussis and HiB (Haemophilus influenzae type B). "These are transmitted in the air, so swimming pools do not carry a greater risk of infection than anywhere else," he says.

It is worth seeking out good teachers, says Mrs Matthews: "Swimming is such a positive experience for Simeon that singing the swimming songs to him calms his tears out of the pool, too."

Splashing about at the Dilmun Club pool, St Christopher's School pupil Thomas Payne concluded: "Best of all, swimming is fun!"