How can I work on swimming skills with my child at home?

If you have read our first blog post: "How many lessons will it take for my child to learn to swim", you may already know that attending swim lessons more than once a week is better for kiddos to learn more efficiently; However, with busy schedules and sometimes not being within budget, twice a week or more is just not possible. So what are some ways you can work on swimming skills at home without having a pool? We have a few options below.  All of them are very important skills that most kids tend to struggle with. 

Infants/toddlers (6 months - 3 years old)

Abc Levels 1-3

• Water comfort: Work on getting your child familiar with the feel of water on their face and head. In the bathtub, use a small cup filled with water and slowly pour the water over the head like a waterfall. Have them slightly tilt their head forward while pouring the water if they have a hard time keeping their mouth closed. They may cry for the first few times which is okay as it is a new feeling for them. Limit the number of times you pour the cup of water over their head to about 2 or 3 each time. Repeat this every 'bath time'.
• Holding breath: They may not catch on to this right away but the earlier you start the better. Show them your deep breath in and closing your mouth to hold the air in for a few seconds. Make it fun by doing 'chipmunk cheeks'. Only hold breath for no more than 5 seconds at a time.
• Blowing air: There are two ways they will need to know how to do this for swimming. Blowing through their mouth and also through their nose. Getting them to blow through the nose tends to be a challenge for most kids so this skill is really important to practice. The can practice blowing through the mouth by blowing out birthday candles, blowing a balloon around the room, blowing on mommy or daddy's hand, or blowing on food to cool it down. You can also show them how to do bubbles in a cup of water through a straw after they start to get the hang of it. To teach bubbles through the nose, fill a cup or a bowl with water and show them how to "hummmm" keeping the mouth closed. Then put the nose (or whole face) in the cup or bowl while doing a continuous "hummm". Make sure they are only doing this for about 5 seconds at a time and lifting the nose or head out of the water before they stop humming.

Children ( 3 years old and Up)

Abc Levels 3 - 6

• Kicking: Working on proper kicks is very important. One way your kiddo can practice kicks is to have them lay on the floor on their tummy with their hands under their thighs and kick their legs up and down. Doing it this way forces them to keep their toes pointed like a ballerina or like they are tip toeing. Pointed toes are very important when kicking. Another way to practice is to have them lay on their back on their bed with the legs stretched straight out over the side of the bed and kick up and down with toes pointed. They should be kicking with straight legs and not bending the knees too much. Also, make sure they are keeping their head down on the bed and looking up at the ceiling instead of looking at their feet or legs. We want to avoid creating a bad head position habit.
• Shoulder Rotation: Have your child practice 'windmill arms'. Standing straight with legs together, they should do one arm at a time and at a steady pace. Not fast. Make sure the arm comes all the way back staying close to their bodies. The upper arm should brush the side of their head/ear when coming up and then come down in a forward motion to touch the side of their leg keeping the arm relaxed but straight.
  
  
  Exercises For Building Muscle and Strength

  
  
• Toe Raises
• Push-ups 
• Planking
• Arm Circles 
• Scissor Kicks 
• Sit-ups

"Dry Drowning" - No Such Thing, Know The FACTS

Most of us who spend time in the water are familiar with the risks of drowning, but what have we heard about “dry drowning?” This lesser known and somewhat confusing term has come up in recent reports, so we sat down with water safety and medical expert Dr. Linda Quan to get the facts straight.

What is a drowning? 

Dr. Quan: The medical definition of drowning is “the process of experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion/immersion in liquid.” This means that drowning happened only when there was some trouble breathing right after the submersion. If a person was in the water and had no breathing troubles after being rescued, then regardless of what happens later, the person did not drown.

To the average person, “near-drowning,” “dry drowning,” “secondary drowning” or “delayed drowning” sound pretty scary, but there are no medically accepted conditions that use these terms. Why?

Dr. Quan: The use of these terms is discouraged by many organizations, including The World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Red Cross.

Here are why these conditions don’t make sense and are not approved:

• Near-drowning: Imagine using terms like “near burns,” “near cardiac arrest,” or “near car collisions.” To be clear about whether the victim died or lived after a drowning event, the terms that should be used are fatal drowning (died) or non-fatal drowning(lived).
• Dry drowning: The terms dry and wet drowning were abandoned decades ago when the real culprit in drowning injury was not understood and was mistakenly thought to be about the amount of water entering the lungs. Drowning injury is actually caused by lack of oxygen.

The amount of injury from drowning is due to how long the victim is without oxygen.

• Secondary drowning (also known as “delayed drowning”): The terminology was also used before drowning injury was understood, and before prehospital care and emergency departments could evaluate breathing with the sophistication they do now.

What should we watch for after a person was submerged and then rescued?

Dr. Quan: There are three possible scenarios you’ll want to keep an eye on.

1. A child who, after exiting the water, is completely normal, with no symptoms, did not drown. If the child develops a cough, breathing difficulty, confusion or other concerning symptoms at any time, seek immediate medical attention.
2. A child who has minimal symptoms (think sputtering and coughing after swallowing water down the wrong pipe at the dinner table) after being rescued that resolve quickly AND returns immediately to normal with no breathing difficulty, can be observed by an attentive caretaker. The child will typically either get better or worse within 2 to 3 hours. If the child develops coughing, breathing difficulties, sleepiness, or confusion, seek immediate medical attention.
3. If after a water rescue, a child has an excessive or prolonged cough, fast or hard breathing, is not breathing normally, or is not “acting right,” seek immediate medical attention.

Drowning deaths do not occur due to unexpected deterioration of a person’s condition days or weeks later with no preceding symptoms. Brand new symptoms that develop days later are extremely unlikely to be related to the drowning episode. Importantly, the child should be evaluated for other conditions that might have caused the deterioration.

Bottom line: If your child has been in the water, and was breathing, walking and talking normally and then later gets worrisomely sick, the child needs be seen by a health-care provider immediately. But it is not drowning.

The most important way to “treat” drowning is to prevent drowning. What works are swim lessons, adequate supervision for children and adolescents, life jacket usage, 4-sided pool fencing, and swimming in areas where there is a lifeguard. Parents and those supervising others in the water should know water safety, be sure to adequately supervise children, be able to perform a safe rescue and learn CPR.

Those wanting additional information may reference the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council’s Q&A: Debunking the Existence of Dry or Delayed/Secondary Drowning.

To learn more about how to prevent drowning, visit redcross.org/watersafety and download the American Red Cross Circle of Drowning Prevention. For steps on how to respond to someone in trouble in the water, download the Chain of Drowning Survival.