How survival swim lessons could save your baby

Status
Not open for further replies.
Waterbaby

Waterbaby

Escalante-Class Member
http://fox13now.com/2017/06/30/how-survival-swim-lessons-could-save-your-baby/

How survival swim lessons could save your baby
Posted 2:45 pm, June 30, 2017, by Brooke Graham


Alliesha Reber, co-owner of Aquatics Academy, has been teaching children survival swim skills alongside her mom for years. At the academy, they recommend starting kids in swim lessons at the tender age of 6 months old. Alliesha says “With a baby, it is natural for them to be in the water, they have been in mommy’s tummy so to make that transition to a water setting it is actually quite easy and it is easier than people think.” The idea for the academy came to Alliesha and her mom from the void they saw of kids learning survival swim skills. “Kids were learning how to blow bubbles and sing songs and that is great but some people want their kids to know how to swim if they fall off a boat or fall in the pool or what not.”

Throughout her years of experience, she has heard some harrowing stories from clients, however one sticks out the most. “We had a little girl I believe she was 18 months old and they were going to Lake Powell for the 4th of July and the mom was like look I just want her to get comfortable in the water she is only 18 months old I don’t have very high expectations.” Little did the mom know that two weeks of swimming lessons for her toddler would end up saving her life. “By the time they got to Powell we heard the story that they were making dinner and they took life jackets off all of the kids they were done for the day making dinner and somehow the screen door had gotten left open just enough that this 18-month-old walked off the back of the house boat and they couldn’t find her. They were searching for about a half an hour when come to find out someone heard little cries out in the distance. She had floated 50 yards out to a buoy one of the marker buoys, rolled over grabbed it and was just crying for mom 50 yards away from the house boat.”
 
That's a great idea, and a great story. We gave our infants those swimming lessons years ago at that age.
We also made the difficult decision to not take any children under about 13 to the lake. I refuse to have a funeral because we were near water. Of course older kids do reckless things, but they aren't quite as helpless in the water.
 
We had little kids on almost every Powell trip. They were never out of their life jackets until the HB was closed up for the night, and they were going to bed.
 
Dale said:
We had little kids on almost every Powell trip. They were never out of their life jackets until the HB was closed up for the night, and they were going to bed.
Click to expand...

Dale even that is not a solution - a couple of years ago a little boy around age 2 - supposed to be in bed, walked off back of houseboat and drowned. Like Leardriver, this is why we had a rule no young children on our houseboat trips. Cost us a friendship with friends who previously had agreed to the same rule - til they had a baby.
 
It is an agonizing thing for our group, and we feel terribly guilty. We would feel worse if something unspeakable happened.
 
Waterbaby said:
Dale even that is not a solution - a couple of years ago a little boy around age 2 - supposed to be in bed, walked off back of houseboat and drowned. Like Leardriver, this is why we had a rule no young children on our houseboat trips. Cost us a friendship with friends who previously had agreed to the same rule - til they had a baby.
Click to expand...
We made sure the doors were latched. If you were sleeping on the roof, we had a porta john up there, so you did not have to wake anyone up. Or you could just pee over the edge. Yes, that happened, a lot.
 
I have four kids ages ten and under. Trips without them are certainly less work and have more fishing/alone time, but they just aren't the same. I love how much fun kids have on the houseboat. That is part of what makes the lake so fun.
 
Both of our kids were in the water at young ages and learned to float right away, so we went with bringing our children(kids first trip they were both less than a year old) and having others bring theirs also, my captain's speech included the line if you hear a splash check on it right now because it is a kid or something a kid threw in. We had more scares from the kids climbing the slickrock to dizzying heights than anything to do with the water, vigilance was needed but both my kids still love coming with us and I can't wait to share this beautiful Lake with the grandchildren.
 
We have been going to Lake Powell every year since 1992 (when I was a kid). I don't think there has ever been a year when there were less than 10 young kids (under age 12 or so) on the houseboat. It was my cousins and I that were the kids originally and now it is my kids and my nieces and nephews. We have never had any issue. We always have adults keeping an eye on kids and they never leave the houseboat without a life jacket. I can certainly respect the choice to not take kids for safety, but I don't think it is necessarily any more dangerous than other trips (hiking, camping, etc.) It would be easier and less stressful without the kiddos, but man it is a ton of fun with them,
 
Swim lessons or not. An accidental fall into the water especially for kids but even for adults often results in sucking in water to the lungs, choking, panic, drowning. I agree, best to leave the toddlers home. Babies in arms are fine and safe. toddlers can't be trusted in any surrounding. Teens? Well, there was a time in my life that if I lost one or two teens, I'd have felt bad, but not cancelled the fishing. :):)
 
A family houseboat trip is totally different than an adult trip with the beverages and relaxation that not having the kids allows. Having the kids is great but a different mindset is in place for those trips. Of course accidents can happen under any circumstance and a swimmer has it over a none swimmer every time.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I was 2/3 when my dad first started taking me and I brought Nixon on his first trip a month before he turned 3 (he'll be 5 in August). We have only had fishing boats so I guess that makes it a bit easier, it takes a little more effort to make sure he is safe but now I wouldn't want to be there without him. He loves it and he'd probably kill me if I ever went without him. He knows he always has to have his jacket on except around the fire or in bed. Not bringing him for fear of something bad happening is no way to live or parent for me, that could happen anywhere, but then again I cant speak to having him on a houseboat.
 
Taking children to any body of water including even a pool is up to the parents of course.

Just remember that water is everywhere and kids love it. Anyone that has kids would be well served to try very hard to turn them into fish at an early age much like this little one:

Not as young as this little tyke but I did learn to swim at a very young age in Venezuela of all places. From that point on, water was never a threat to me though a great many other things of my own design certainly were.:oops:

I heartily recommend teaching kids to be fish from a very early age. In this way they won't have the fears and apprehensions that many adults end up with. Have you ever noticed that most adults are not very good swimmers at all.

Everyone should be able to swim and basic survival skills like the 'Dead Man's Float' should be second nature.
FWIW
Goblin
 
Last edited:
Waterbaby said:
Dale even that is not a solution - a couple of years ago a little boy around age 2 - supposed to be in bed, walked off back of houseboat and drowned. Like Leardriver, this is why we had a rule no young children on our houseboat trips. Cost us a friendship with friends who previously had agreed to the same rule - til they had a baby.
Click to expand...

Its all about parental responsibility, and education. We made sure the HB doors were secured before the kids got out of the lifejackets. When my brothers and I were toddlers on the farm in Nebraska, there was always a loaded 12 ga shotgun leaning against the back door frame! We were TAUGHT! "Don't touch the gun"! We didn't! When we moved to a ranch in Idaho, there was a small river about a quarter mile from the house. I was 9 and my brother was 7. Neither one of us could swim. We spent every day that summer at the river, fishing and playing on the sandbars, hiding us and our poles when we heard the game warden's airboat. We were TAUGHT! Don't go in the deep water! My son is a cop with multiple hot loaded guns in strategic places. His kids were TAUGHT! Don't touch the guns! Unfortunately, today, too many "parents" are not PARENTS!
 
That all sounds good until you have a dead family member, which happens tragically every year at the lake. We aren't going to join that group for any reason.
 
Might as well keep our kids in bubble wrap and not let them leave the house. It could be dangerous out there. ;)
 
That's funny DanK80... My family tells me stories that I was able to swim before I could walk...Of course we also rode our bikes well after dark and without helmets, etc...
 
Unfortunately, our society has changed since this 70 year old kid was born. With today's overprotection of our children, and out of control slip & fall scumbag lawyers suing for every presumed injury, my same age friends wonder how we and the people we grew up with survived. We rode our bikes all over town, helmets did not exist, we left the house in the morning with a peanut butter sandwich for a bike ride, and knew we had to be home by dark. We got into fights, played baseball on rocky vacant lots, climbed the neighbor's trees, fell down, broke bones, etc. we all lived and nobody got sued! I could drive a tractor at 7 and drive a car by 12.

I stand by my previous post. Most of these accidents on the lake involving children appear to result from negligence, or lack of parents teaching their children about the hazards.
 
Dale you are the luckiest kid ever, driving a tractor at 7 etc,etc,etc, You are right, childrens deaths happen from negligence and I wouldn't go to far, because the pain and guilt associated with an accidental death is something that is not easy to describe so don't try.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top