Survival Swimming Can Save Your Child's Life

Many children have the opportunity to play and swim in pools and at beaches. Often, these opportunities will be at the home of a friend or relative, or while on vacation. Living in Florida, there are many more pools than in most other parts of the country (it seems as if there are more houses with pools than without them around here), so the opportunity to swim (and the inherent danger presented) can be much greater. In fact, across the United States, about 11 children die of drowning accidents every day, and another 39 will suffer brain damage as a result of a water-related accident.

Fortunately, there is an incredible program developed in Central Florida called Infant Swiming Resource (ISR), developed by Dr. Harvey Barnett. Dr. Barnett's Infant Swimming Resource Program is the result of 30 years of experience and vast amounts of research with constant refinement. This program is also taught through the Central Florida YMCA as "Safe Start." Most of you reading this have probably not heard of the Safe Start program (www.safestart.cc) or Infant Swiming Resource (www.infantswim.com). Safe Start and ISR are survival swim programs for children from ages 6 months to 6 years. The program teaches your children how to save themselves if they accidentally fall into a pool (or lake). The Safe Start and Infant Swim Resource courses are in-depth programs where the child works one-on-one with a certified instructor to learn the survival swim techniques. Children are taught first to just float on their backs, and then are taught to roll from any position in the water onto their backs and float (a variety of positions are used to simulate different ways a child might fall into a pool-and to save themselves by floating on their backs). In the next step, children are taught to swim to the wall or edge of the pool. If they are not able to swim that distance, they learn to roll onto their backs to float and rest, before rolling back over to continue their swim to the wall. Once a child is able to complete the swim-float-swim sequence consistently and in street clothes as well as swim gear, they have essentially completed the program.

Both of my daughters are successful graduates of the Safe Start survival swim program. I started both CJ and Anna in Safe Start lessons at just over 6 months old, and have continued refresher survival swim lessons once every 6 months to a year. Even with their survival swim lessons, we've still been super-vigilant and extra careful when the children are around the water. I only wish that these programs were more widely available than they are at present. Safe Start is available in the Orlando, Florida area through the Central Florida YMCA, and ISR is currently available through approximately 150 private instructors in 19 states nationwide. The reason I am so passionate about this is that I have had personal experience that demonstrates these survival swim lessons really could save your child's life. Safe Start training saved my daughter CJ's life TWICE when she was just three years old!

The first instance was at a family gathering where there were a lot of older kids all racing out to the pool at once. Even though there was a door alarm for the pool, the door was open as everyone was going out to the pool, so the alarm was turned off. CJ ran out to the pool together with the crowd, well ahead of my husband and myself. She reached into the pool for a boogie board, and fell in. She immediately flipped over and floated on her back until someone could help her climb out of the pool. She was upset and was crying because the water was cold, but didn't panic at all while in the water.

The second time CJ's Safe Start training proved its worth was at a birthday pool party. All four of us (my husband, myself and my two daughters) were all in the pool, mostly staying in the hot tub area. I decided to try going down the water slide, (this was one designed to handle adults), and told CJ to stay with her Dad and baby sister Anna. I walked over to the water slide, unaware that CJ had decided to follow me. I climbed up the ladder, slid down the water slide into the pool, which was about 8 feet deep at the base of the water slide. I swam over to the part of the pool where I could climb out, and my husband asks me "Where's CJ?" My heart thumped. I replied "I thought she was with you..." and he said "I thought she was with you..." After a few panicked moments, we spotted CJ, happily floating on her back, by the base of the water slide. She had slid down the water slide into the deep water and then popped back up to the surface and began to float! That is a testament to the effectiveness of the survival swim technique. I shudder to think what might have happened if she had not been trained to float.

I have told these stories to many Moms already, especially those that I've encountered at Safe Start lessons who are wondering if the effort is eventually going to be worth it. There's no question that this program is a significant time commitment (swimming every day for six weeks), and the children often cry or otherwise complain through their lessons. It can get really frustrating for the parents, leading them to sometimes question whether the effort is really worth it. Well, I'm here to tell you, IT IS WORTH IT. It is more than worth every minute of complaining, every tear, every frazzled nerve. It can save your child's life, and it will likely prove its worth when you least expect it. So, if you are in an area where these lessons are offered, please enroll your children! In addition, if your child has already been through Safe Start or ISR but hasn't been through refresher lessons in a year or more, please make sure you go back for refresher classes! It could be one of the most important things you ever do for you and your child.