dunking

[pinkum]

when i first went swimming with my babe i was told they natural hold their breath up to 6 months when you dunk them under, now my babes 5 and a half months im getting nervouse about doing it incase he takes on a load of water. weve been blowing bubbles for him and just putting his lips under but whats the next stage? i cant get along to baby swimming classes as i dont have the car the day their on.

I remember when I took mine to baby swimming classes. We were told to "jump" them in from the side then turn them round and push them back to the side (whilst holding of course). This meant that should they ever fall in the water they would automatically turn and make for the side.

Handy I thought!

if you blow on babies face before they go under automatically hold their breath.

Also you can get some little toys to blow on called eegg flips

www.swimshop.co.uk/src/adswimshop/recno/7/product-Egg-Flips-EGGFL.htm

our class does it via word association... we started by saying childs name, then ready , go (pause) dribble water on their face and then worked up to a smooth under water pull . Be very careful about just doing it as you can get water in their lungs. if it were me i wouldnt have the confidence to do it without classes but i am a coward, good luck

i had already been dunking him after taking him to swimming classes, we take him swimming every sunday from 6 weeks when we were told it was safe to do the dunking as well and he held his breath fine but now hes getting to 6 months im getting a little worried about doing it as they said the natural instinct to do so stops. So i dont know if he will carry on what hes been doing or just breath the water in, a weeks a long time for a little one to remember.

In our classes you blow in to their face and also do word association. Not more than a few times per class. And we've also been told you should ensure they go completely under, not partially, as that helps them to get the underwater thing. Every week we also practice breathing out under water, blowing bubbles. DS is 11 months and transistioned fine after 6 months when it wasn't a natural reflex

Oh. We're not talking about biscuits then? .

I'll get my coat.

on the biscuit issue which i must admit is a seriouse one: i am a non dunker as i hate bits in my tea, my partner likes to dunk and has been known to ask if he can dunk in my tea after finishing his before his biscuit. the nerve!