Pueblo County SwimAmerica Baby & Me Classes Pueblo County High School Pool 1050 35th Lane

The goal of the Baby and Me class is to promote a positive response to the water environment, and to teach the infant to float on their back, and get a breath of air. This is viewed as a step on the way to readiness to swim. We do not teach infants to swim. Swimming is a process and not an event!

Facts: Most of the children who are victims of drowning are under the age of five and have drowned in their own home pools. Consider the three following items:

1. Parents should install fences around their home pools, with self-closing gates. Pool fences can be purchased through PoolAlarms.com.
2. All children should learn to swim in a SwimAmerica learn to swim program. This will ensure that they will be taught to "Roll Over, Float on your back, and Yell for help" during a water emergency. Children are not considered to be completely water safe until they can swim at least 300 yards of freestyle continuously.
3. All parents need to be diligent when watching their children swim. Accidents do still happen even when fences are up and children know how to swim.
4. Pueblo County SwimAmerica Baby & Me is filled with fun activities that will stimulate your child, develop breath holding skills, build confidence and promote valuable trust and relationship building between parent and child. Parents need to be patient with their child and let them dictate comfort and speed in learning the skills.

During our class: Mommy or Daddy must be in the water with the child. Swim diapers required if needed.

• SwimAmerica will provide wet suits! Pools should be at least 91 degrees for infant comfort. County's pool is usually 82-84 degrees.
• Submersions are not necessary, but should be encourage if the infant is ready. Be patient with your child and pay attention to your child's behavior towards submersions. Crying and acting out is a signal that the child is not ready or has had enough.
• Stimulate breath holding by trickling water down the infant's face! Blowing in the face sometimes stimulates breath holding. Always begin breath by saying "Ready, Go!"
• Hyponatremia - This is an imbalance in electrolytes in the bloodstream of the child. It is rare, yet possible, due to ingestion of large amounts of water by the child. This is controlled by limiting the number of submersions! We allow a maximum of three submersions in the first class, which must be brief (1 - 3) seconds. As the child becomes more comfortable, we build the number of submersions.