Dunking babies under water?

krissyh21 · June 2010

What is your view point on this?

I took D to his first swim class today and they encourage dunking. Half the class did it, half the class didn't. I did it and then the woman next to me said she heard a story where someone dunked their baby under water and didn't think anything of it, then the next day the baby suffocated because he took water in his lungs and it went undiscovered...

I always heard that it is instinctual for babies to not breath under water and that the sooner you get then familiar and comfortable with water the better.

D loves the water, didn't even flinch when he was dunked. But of course now I am second guessing myself.

sasa625 · June 2010

DD's swim teacher said the same thing (that babies' instincts tell them to hold their breath under water) and we did put DD under. She was fine with it, and we feel like we'd rather start her early than wait until she develops fear. I have heard about the suffocation risk or whatever, but I'm not too concerned

SeaSoul · June 2010

Well, my first thought is that this is akin to the whole tickling issue...we're exerting physical control over them that they might not like (and could apparently cause harm). It doesn't feel right to me, but I am all about getting Cal acclimated to water quickly, so I will be interested to hear what the "experts" have to say. (BTW, there was no dunking in Cal's 1st swim class on Monday.)

PhillySue · June 2010

Katie loves the water and has no problem with water in her face. If we were in a swim class I would not see a problem dunking her because I think should would not mind. I agree it is good to get them comfortable in the water and get their face wet. If she was very fearful of the water already I would probably not dunk her make her even more upset. Also, I am not sure that I would trust that story. Did she just hear of someone or know someone personally that happen to? It seems odd to me. Anyway, I do not think you should second guess yourself. I would have done exactly what you did.

oct11bride03 · June 2010

I'm not an expert by any means, but I think you're always going to come across someone who's brother's sister's best friend had a baby that XXX happened to.

I would think the baby would need to drink in a lot of water for him to suffocate the next day because of it. As a newborn K was aspirating liquid whenever she drank (why we ended up in the hospital), but they told us it takes a long time for that to actually affect lung function.

BoxTer · June 2010

I have done it with N numerous times, at least once each time we go swimming. I was told to blow in their face first because it makes them hold their breath. I just have her under for a second or two and she seems to like it. She really loves swimming. We've done one round of lessons and I will be doing more soon. A friend of mine teaches lessons at her house.

sakidavi · June 2010

We went on vacation about a month ago with my parents. My mom took my brother for swim lessons when he was an infant, so I was asking her out of curiosity if it was instinctual for a baby to start paddling if you just let them go in the water. I certainly wasn't going to try this, but I was curious if that was covered in the class.

Well she misunderstood me and said they taught the mother's how to do this safely, and asked if she wanted me to try it with DS. Well he loves the water so much, so I told her to go ahead. So she started jumping up and down with him, then blows in his face and dunks him under water.

Took me by surprise because that's not what I was expecting, and it took my DS by surprise. But he actually didn't seem to mind it. So to answer your question, I think it depends on the baby. If they're already terrified, no reason to make them more scared. I think the blowing in their face is important though because if forces them to hold their breath.

DavezWife · June 2010

I'm not a huge fan of doing it for them. We made sure Ava was immune to water getting her in face and all... and now that's she's playing independently in the water (with me right there) she'll slip or get too close or something, and accidently dunk. We whoop it up, say "You dunked! yeah!!" and ask if she wants to do it again. (haha, gotcha kid! you think it's fun now!)

Sometimes she does, sometimes not. She also jumps off the side, and I ask her 1st if she wants to dunk or not. I like the idea of giving her a choice.

I worry that dunking them would make them more scared of the water, something we work VERY hard to avoid.

fallbride110406 · June 2010

I'm pretty sure a baby holding it's breath has something to do with the hypercapnic alarm response, which is the same instinct that makes a baby turn it's head away from bedding so it doesn't suffocate. As long as the baby is old enough to have developed that response, then they shouldn't inhale water (I think).

RoxBride · June 2010

I won't do it. DD loves the water, she doens't mind it in her face, and she takes a shower daily. On her own, she'll happily put her face under the water in the bath and blow bubbles.

So I see no need to dunk her under water, when it is under her control, and surprise her.

laura&dan05 · June 2010

I've never dunked Hannh but Dh has a handful of times. When she was in swim class they didn't do it as part of the class but DH tried it a few times when we were swimming at our neighborhood pool. He doesn't do it more than one time while we're swimming. Dd doesn't seem to mind it but she also doesn't mind water being poured over her head in the bath (she thinks it's funny). In the tub when I wash her hair and rinse I always give her a clean towel and let her wipe the water out of her eyes. So the whole idea of her face being wet doesn't bother her at all. If she cried after or acted scared we wouldn't do it at all.

krissyh21 · June 2010

How the class I attended does it is with a song. They sing ring around the rosie and for the part where they all fall down, the babies go under water. So I think in future classes, it takes the surprise away? I don't know??

I tried it to see how he would react. Had he been scared or cried or showed anything that told me he did not want to do it, I would not have done it again. However he was all smiles before and after (he even cried when the class was over and we had to get out of the pool).

Mrs.Babbsy · June 2010

We dunk both our girls under, our swim instructor told us if it made us feel better to blow in their faces before dunking them.

ladychicago · June 2010

I agree that you'll always find someone who has heard of someone who had a horrible thing happen to them... that can be said of nearly every parenting decision we make.

I'm all for getting babies used to the water as soon as possible - including quick dunking. I used to take 4-5 month olds swimming at an old job, and we would always prepare the baby for a dunk by bouncing their bodies in the water and counting "1 - 2 - 3 - UNDER!!!" After one or two times, the babies would learn to close their mouths and hold their breath by the time we got to the number 2. And after they mastered that, we would start teaching them to roll onto their backs under water and come up in a back float. It is amazing what babies can learn, and I'm of the school that you can never teach a baby too much when it comes to water safety.

pinkcallalily · June 2010

My son isn't old enough for swim lessons yet, but he'll be starting as soon as he hits 6 months and I fully intend to dunk him. It's important to me that he gets comfortable with the water very early. My husband didn't learn to swim until he was a teenager (my MIL never learned) and he isn't that comfortable with the water. I started swim lessons when I was under a year old and am extremely comfortable with the water. I see nothing wrong with dunking early on (unless they obviously hate it) and I think they would have to be under water for several seconds and swallow a lot of water to have it cause any problems with their lungs. Since my son's first bath I have been letting water run over his face. I cover it to keep the soap out when rinsing his hair, but then I pour more water over his head and let it run down his face, ears, etc. At 10 weeks he already loves it when I pour water on his head.

AvaLikeLava · June 2010

In our class we dip the kid's faces in the water, not a full on dunk. Each dip is preceded by a blow in their face. Blowing in your face immediately brings up the instinct to hold your breath, which is what the kids do too.

sweetpea18 · June 2010

We dunked in our swim lessons. The first few lessons, we didn't. Then, the next few, we could dunk up to 3 times, but didn't have to. The last week, we could dunk them whenever.

I dunked dd each lesson. She didn't seem to mind and it made her comfortable with the water. Now, when we go swimming, she willing dunks her face,

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