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Home › Articles › Toddler Safety › H2-(N)O?

H2-(N)O?

Is Your Baby Ready for the Backstroke?

By Johnathon Allen

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The AAP also says that teaching children younger than 4 to swim can lead to a false sense of security without adding to their safety in the water.

"We're discouraging lessons for children under 4 if the parents' idea is that teaching their baby to swim makes them safer,'' says Dr. Barb Smith, a pediatrician who co-authored the AAP statement. "It can make the parents less vigilant and the baby more interested in going into the pool alone."

McKay counters this position. "Not teaching a toddler to swim because it instills a false of security is the same as assuming parents aren't going to drive safely if their child is in a car seat," he says. "Safety skills are a beautiful byproduct of teaching them to swim, but they are by no means a substitute for safe parenting. Just because you teach a child to swim doesn't mean you should neglect installing a safety fence aound the pool or learning CPR."

A recent U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission study revealed that 69 percent of child drowning incidents occur when parents are present and there are no other back-up systems in place. The study also showed that 75 percent of the victims were between 12 and 35 months old.

Teaching Tots to Swim

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