toddlers and swimming lessons

i've just recently started taking 19 month old dd to the pool, and we had our first swimming lesson last week...

she loves the water, but is not as confident as the other kids in the class, its a bit of a battle to hold her in any other position than on my hip with her arms tightly around me...

There was a time when I could sort of "swim her" through the water, but now she is very reluctant and battles me when I try to position her on her tummy or back.

I was just wanting to hear anybody else's experiences with toddlers in the water? has anyone had a timid child that then gained confidence in the water? how long did it take?

Who uses floaties or one of those back float thingies?? The swimming instructor has advised against any floaty devices as they can become too dependent on it, but I was thinking maybe it would give her more confidence in the water initially??

Its just hard in the lessons trying to get her to do things when she is clawing at my neck and is permanently attached to me. Wondering when i can expect her to loosen up a bit...

Love to hear any stories at all?

DS just started swimming lessons a few weeks ago. He spent the whole first lesson crying but is getting better and better now (had 4th lesson this week). He still has times where he has a little cry but I think it takes time. If he really battles me I just stop and give him a cuddle and get him to watch the other kids doing it before trying again.

I think all kids are different and will all take a different amount of time before they are comfortable. I hope you dd starts to enjoy it soon.

We have taken DD to lessons since she was 6months old and she has gone through stages with her confidence in the water. She is definitely NOT an adventurous child and she had many episodes of not wanting to do anything except be a limpet on mummy!

I would just work with her through the stages and encourage her. I would make sure she did the things that I knew she liked and not push too hard with things she really didn't want to do that day - I would then be really excited and encouraging to the kids that did do the things though.

Now at 2.5 DD can do torpedo arms and dive off the edge of the pool and swim underwater to me! 6 months ago she would refuse to jump in so it's just a matter of persevering and letting them used to doing things at their own pace I think.

My boys started swimming lessons at 3 months, so we haven't been through this. But I have seen other kids in the classes over time go through it. It really depends on the child, but they definitely do get more confident over time. I tend to agree with the teacher about floating aids - in the short term it might help, but I think you'll find it will take her longer to gain confidence without them, so in the long term it's not worth it. GL hun. She'll get there.

Oskar was going to lessons then we stopped for a term as they changed the lesson time and it was too early in the morning for him. He has just had his 2nd lesson back and the first lesson just bawled so I took him out after about 10 mins and last week he still cried a bit at first and just hung on to dad (he does the lessons with him) and the teacher got him to take him away from the other kids which helped as well and they just played together a bit and she kept checking and was happy so long as he was in the water..lol. She said it will take him a few weeks probably but he will be ok again. I was a bit bummed out about it as he was doing quite well at swimming and going under the water and having fun before he had to miss out for the term. As for floaties, I agree with the teacher, it can make them too dependent on them and then even more frightened when it comes time to remove them.

Jack did swimming lessons from 4-7mths (pool closed for winter) I was so excited to go back when pool reopend he was just under 13mths then he hated the lessons loved the pool but would not do lessons cried and lots of things I finally worked out he didn't like the crowded pool he was very shy and reserved around the other kids, so knowing what I did from earlier lessons I scrapped going and just went to pool alone and di the things we ould have done in lesson for way less money :lol: when he is a bit older and more outgoing I will put him back in lessons

My son (18 mnths) has been doing lessons since he was 9 mnths and there are times when he doesn't want to do things and cries, and has tantrums but I just keep reassuring him and he eventually gets it and feels safer. Sometimes it takes a few lessons but you will get there. I agree with evryone else about the floaties and also she wouldn't understand what they are and what they do any way.
My DS1 was terrified of the water ( now 12 ) and when he was 4 I started him with swimming lessons and spent many lessons with him stuck to my neck screaming and other mothers looking at me like I was torturing him ! But I knew that if I didn't help him to get over this fear young it would only get worse as he gets older too. Be patient and strong, you are doing the right thing and one day soon she will be loving it .

My DS did lessons from about 8 mths, but I stopped in April until Sept 'cause I was too cold while drying him :redface: ( & I live on the Sunshine Coast) When we started again he wasn't happy for the first couple of lessons, then OK for the next few but didn't want his head wet - no floating on the back or going under, and now 7 weeks in he's happy to do everything!

In the last few weeks I've taken him to the pool during the week for a play and to the beach on the weekends and I think that's helped get him used to the water and realise that its fun.

Snowy, so glad to read your little story. Gives me hope about Oskar. He's being exactly the same...no water on the head etc. Mind you the teacher did try to get him to swim across to dad first lesson back and he got a mouthful of water which hasn't helped at all. She's just backed right off him doing anything other than getting him comfy back in the water again.

My DS has done swimming lessons since 6 months without a break apart from the occasional cold and school holidays but he still went through a nervous phase at about 18 months which probably lasted about 4 months. He would cuddle and cling a lot and some activities that he used to do confidently he wouldn't do at all. Other activities he was fine with. Some weeks he was better than others but I kept taking him every week. I was a swimming teacher myself for a while and I knew the worst thing would be to take him out of lessons because it would be harder to get him back into the water when he was older and even more aware of his surroundings. If he wanted to cuddle during the lesson, fine. He was in the water and really the main objective at this age is water familiarisation, not actual swimming.

One swimming teacher we had was quite young and not very tolerant of this behaviour so I changed to an older teacher (a mum!) who was much more understanding and said that some kids just do go through a phase where they become much more aware of their surroundings and understand that they might hurt themselves...and just to persevere. It did drive me mad when people asked if he had only just started swimming lessons - they looked at me so disbelievingly when I said he'd been swimming since he was 6 months!

DS is now coming along in leaps and bounds again in his swimming, so much so that the other parents remark on it. I think I finally hit on the solution...a smaller swimming class. He had been in a class of 8 kids and that meant that the teacher was more rushed, the class was much noisier and also he wouldn't get as many turns because of the number of kids. We changed to an earlier class that only had 3 or 4 kids and the difference in a couple of weeks was remarkable.