As counter intuitive as it might sound, swimming lessons have been thought to increase a child’s risk of drowning. However, in this month’s Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, a study shows that children between the ages of 1 to 4 appear to have a lower risk of drowning if they have taken formal swimming lessons. The authors state that “Previous concerns have been raised about the potential for swimming lessons to increase the risk of drowning, either through increased exposure to water or through decreased parental vigilance as parents become more confident in their child’s swimming ability.” However, these new results show that swimming lessons can, in fact, save lives.
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Tags: Add new tag, children, drowning, lessons, pool, swim, swimming, todler, water
Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.
March 4th, 2009 at 4:44 am
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March 4th, 2009 at 8:11 am
When my son was 3 we started him taking swimming lessons because we spend a great deal of time each summer at the lake. As my parents have a lake house within an hour drive from our place. One afternoon while swimming in the lake with friends my son lost his floatation device. I was on the bank not in the water. And another child thought he could reach my son. While he tried to get close to Nathan as he would approach the water would push Nathan further out into the lake until this youngman could no longer touch bottom. Nathan kept bobbing up and down in the water. He would go under for a few seconds and then kick back to the surface and say hey mom I’m bobbing. I finally reached my son and brought him back to the bank and secured his floatation device. Nathan never got scared. He just kept bobbing and telling me hey look at me I’m bobbing. I am so glad he had taken those swim lessons. One of the first things they teach a young child is how to breath out while under water and to bob up and down in the water to go under and kick back to the top. Without that knowledge at age 3 I probably would have lost my son to a terrible drowning accident. Today Nathan is 18 and will graduate High School in a couple of months. Swim lessons are a must for anyone with a young child who will be around water at any time.