Video of 8-month-old tossed in pool goes viral, swim instructor explains infant training method

Funny you should post this because just a few days ago I was remembering that when I was a child, there were people who did this very thing with their babies to teach them to swim at our local pool .. apparently it's a baby's natural instinct to float and ultimately swim..

I , however wasn't about to try that on my own child... she went to proper swimming lessons as a child...
 

Since we had a pool and my son was born in July, I had him in it when he was one week old. He loved it. Floated and in no time was paddling about like a puppy. He developed his lung power and could swim the entire pool underwater by the time he was 2. At 6, he could swim across a good sized lake. He still loves the water.
 
CarolfromTX said:
I don't think what this mother did was bad. The instructor was in the pool. The kid was not traumatized in any way. I took my daughter to a water babies class when she was just 6 months old. She was on a swim team at 4. She has loved the water ever since.
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If the child took a breath while her head was under the water, the instructor would not have been any help.
Here's another example of "Supervision:" (the child's grandmother was "watching" the child from her kitchen window).
https://patch.com/california/lakeel...-later-the-brutal-killing-of-samantha-runnion
 
JaniceM said:
It's probably survival instincts. Frankly, I think it sucks. What's next- toss little kids into the woods and make them scrounge for food to stay alive?!?
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I'm of the same camp as you, Janice.

I'm thinking a winter survival program for the child, where the mom strips baby down to it's birthday suit, then opens the front door of the house and tosses baby outside into a waiting snow bank. Survival of the fittest.
 
This is a very old method. Babies automatically hold their breath and are used to amniotic fluid surrounding them. 8 months may be a little old, but I'm not sure when the instinct goes away, really. This is nothing new.

Baby can survive if taught this way in infancy, should an accident occur.

Nothing wrong with it.
 
I remember being on patrol. I worked 10:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. most nights, except now and then, I would get caught having to work 12:00 a.m. until 8:00 a.m., which was what happened this time. As I was heading back to the barracks at 7:15 a.m. in upstate PA, which is very mountainous, I saw a a young girl, maybe 14, frantically waving me down. So, I stopped and she was trying to tell me something about her little sister left their campsite and fell into a pond and they can't get her to breathe.

I immediately exited my SUV, locked it and the girl led the way to the small pond, which was maybe 150 yards from the road. The mother had the little girl of 5 years of age lying on the ground trying to give her CPR. As she was doing that, I immediately radioed for an ambulance and a response team, then I checked for a pulse and felt that, yes, there was a pulse. At that point, I took over for the mother just as the father arrived.

I thought for sure that we had lost her because after 2 1/2 minutes had passed, I still wasn't getting a reflex from the little girl. Finally, she gagged and I was able to turn her over and gently tap on her back and then I turned her back around again to make sure that she was breathing on her own. Once I saw her chest expanding and contracting, I thought we would be OK. The EMT's arrived and transported her to the hospital.

It's always a good feeling to have a happy ending.
 
911 said:
I remember being on patrol. I worked 10:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. most nights, except now and then, I would get caught having to work 12:00 a.m. until 8:00 a.m., which was what happened this time. As I was heading back to the barracks at 7:15 a.m. in upstate PA, which is very mountainous, I saw a a young girl, maybe 14, frantically waving me down. So, I stopped and she was trying to tell me something about her little sister left their campsite and fell into a pond and they can't get her to breathe.

I immediately exited my SUV, locked it and the girl led the way to the small pond, which was maybe 150 yards from the road. The mother had the little girl of 5 years of age lying on the ground trying to give her CPR. As she was doing that, I immediately radioed for an ambulance and a response team, then I checked for a pulse and felt that, yes, there was a pulse. At that point, I took over for the mother just as the father arrived.

I thought for sure that we had lost her because after 2 1/2 minutes had passed, I still wasn't getting a reflex from the little girl. Finally, she gagged and I was able to turn her over and gently tap on her back and then I turned her back around again to make sure that she was breathing on her own. Once I saw her chest expanding and contracting, I thought we would be OK. The EMT's arrived and transported her to the hospital.

It's always a good feeling to have a happy ending.
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Unfortunately, all too many don't end so happily.

Job well done! :)
 
Some of the previous comments sound as if the writers think this baby had never been in the water before, and was thrown in "sink or swim" style without any prior experience. But It is obvious to this former swimming instructor that the baby is already comfortable in the water, knows how to get to the surface, and knows how to roll onto his back to breath.

At the end of the video the reporter asks about that, and the instructor assured her that babies are introduced to the water gently and gradually. They're not just tossed into the pool on the first lesson.
 
raybar said:
Some of the previous comments sound as if the writers think this baby had never been in the water before, and was thrown in "sink or swim" style without any prior experience. But It is obvious to this former swimming instructor that the baby is already comfortable in the water, knows how to get to the surface, and knows how to roll onto his back to breath.

At the end of the video the reporter asks about that, and the instructor assured her that babies are introduced to the water gently and gradually. They're not just tossed into the pool on the first lesson.
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Ohhh, I didn't notice that. Thanks for clarifying!!
 

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