Pediatric research in recent years has established that infant swimming is a beneficial activity for an infant’s development and health, with immense health benefits being accumulated over time. Physiologically, water exercises provide resistance training to the infant’s muscles and therefore help build both muscle mass and strength. A child who encounters regular water exercises develops significant muscle strength and muscle coordination.
Psychologically, swimming with an infant in an occasional bout or even as part of a regular swimming program, has proved immensely beneficial to the infants mental development. In a research carried out by the American Academy of Pediatrics which conducted a study in 2007, it showed that infants who had been introduced to water exercises earlier than others scored higher in intelligence and also problem-solving skills. As such, a child is able to carry over developments borne out of swimming prowess to school, since the mind has gained excellent alertness and coordination. Emotionally, research has shown that infants who swim more often tend to be more self-disciplined, motivated and also self-confident in pursuit of success.
Swimming Infants
Swimming is a core ambidextrous activity, which when taught to dyslectic infants by and by, helps them master how to write and read faster, since there is a balance in the two brain hemispheres. Ambidextrous personalities have higher physiological brain development and a balanced inter-hemisphere integration. They also tend to be emotionally independent, flexible in adapting to environments and situations, and also more determined.
The way an infant is introduced to water matters a lot to the infant’s development and health. He or she might end up develop an acute fear of water for the rest of his or her life, thereby delimiting psychological stoutness. Parents should therefore facilitate their infants to play with water in a neutral, non-threatening environment and avoid applying undue pressure, intimidation, threats, oppressive subordination and surprises. The infant’s development and health is greatly improved when swimming is introduced in a gentle, slow- paced, child friendly and gradually progressive process. Remember that pushing a child too fast into the introduction of water exercises can have delimiting effects on later life. Most people with water phobia have an incident in their childhood that triggered the phobia.
Of more concern however in determining how infant swimming affects the infant’s development and health, is the respiratory health risk when the baby is taken swimming. There is however an acute lack of reliable data to calculate potential risks of swimming with an infant, especially the risks on the infants development. However, it is a fact that exposing infants to highly volatile chlorination environments like outdoor pools adversely affects its lung epithelium and increases risks of asthma. Swimming in chlorinated indoor pools has been associated with alterations of distal airways thereby predisposing the infant to asthma and recurrent bouts of bronchitis. However, most of these risks are not directly related to swimming but rather to the exposure of infants to chlorinated and poorly-ventilated indoor swimming pools where levels of chlorine are high. There is no reason why you should not go swimming with an infant if these factors are eliminated.
The stimulating effect of water exercises on an infant’s development and health should be tapped into. It is a medium of inciting the infant’s intelligence, alertness, perceptual ability, concentration and impulse coordination. The social, psychological, emotional and physical development of the child depends largely on the environments he or she is introduced to. Water should therefore be one of these environments, gradually and with friendly playfulness. Besides inspired cognition, the motor development of an infant can be augmented through swimming. This should be progressive training until the baby is peaceful and extremely relaxed in water, though appreciative of danger if he or she becomes careless.