LA Mom Looking for Infant Swimmimg Lessons

YMCA offers great mom & baby infant swim classes. I think they run about $150 for 4 months. (If you are interested to may want to look into getting a membership since the classes are then free and you'd have other perks.)

Try your local YMCA. They offer Mommy and me swim classes for infants and toddlers.

We love the LennyK swim school at the Westside Jewish Community Center.

I agree that normal infant swim lessons are not much use at this age. They are really just meant to get the child comfortable in water. But the lessons itself won't teach them how to swim (and survive) if they fall into water accidentally. In fact, they actually teach babies the wrong postures and gives them wrong idea around water. Their heads are bigger than their bodies until around age 4 so the lessons don't address these. I had my 2.5 year old enrolled in Australian Swim School in Tarzana for 1.5 years. We just wasted our money and time because she didn't learn a thing. I now have a 13 month old and I enrolled them both in Infant Swim Resource around my area. These are survival swim lessons. Babies learn how to float. Check out infantswim.com. It's a bit pricey but less than what we paid collectively for 1.5 years of regular classes. It runs for 6 weeks at a time, Monday thru Friday, at the same time. I highly suggest checking this out. Then, around age 4, it's a better time to take them to regular swim classes to learn actual strokes and such.

I know that Lenny Krayzelburg (at the Westside JCC) has a mommy & me swim class for that young. They are wonderful!!! I never took the mommy & me ones, but I have both my daughters in swim class there!

Why are you even thinking about lessons? I taught for years and I always felt even with my own kids that you never ...ever leave them in a pool until they are teenagers. Get in and play with your child. Get your child to love the water.
A wadding pool is more than enough right now. Too much love is never to much. Teach your own child to kick while you are holding him/her to build up their muscles. It takes some time to get them to dunk their head and hold their breath so demonstrate this from time to time and take your time. Nobody
knows your child better than you do. Please don't leave it up to sombody else. Wish I could help you as I love the little ones but I am busy with my own gr/child.

Try the YMCA. When I was a teenager I taught water babies classes at the YMCA, it's affordable and I'm sure there are locations close to you. The water babies class is great because Moms and Dads are in the pool with the baby. Get him in now! I also taught older kids, those who enter the water at an older age tend to have more fear of being in the pool. An early start will help. As he gets older they offer classes for every age and stage. Good luck!

where in L.A. do you live? Baldwin Park parks and recreation has great swimming lessons during the summer. My daughter has been swimming there for 2 years and I took my son to the mommy and me swimming. The classes are pretty affordable, and the instructors are great.

Here is a link of a company I used for my son. We had private lessons at our home and it worked great with my schedule.
http://www.headabovewater.net/

Try the YMCA. Both my girls started there very early on.Big water babies as well.It's inexpensive and you are in the pool with them:)
By the way, they are both competitive swimmers now! It's an amazing, healthy sport.It's also great piece of mind to know they are water safe at an early age.
Have fun!!!!

I started my daughter with just getting use to the pool at 6 months of age at my local YMCA.

They have classes starting as early as 6 months. I loved the idea because the apartments I lived in at the time did not have a gate around the pool and I was on the bottom floor (yikes).

So I thought in the unfortunate event that she should ever get out the front door, I'd rather have had her exposed to attempting to learn to swim then nothing at all. I think people under estimate the abilities of young children. A child is capable of learning many things at a young age if you're constant with it. They may not perfect it, but its never to early to expose them to it.

Today my daughter is 2 years old and although she may not be ready for the Olympics and she still requires a vest and supervision in order to be in the pool, there is one VERY important feature she learned by the time she was one that will save her life in the event she ever gets near water and no one is there to save her and thats flipping over on her back and just floating. To me that was worth every penny I spent and all the time I spent going every Saturday for an hour. The class exposed her to lots of little techniques about being in the pool. As the other poster said, at 3 years and above, Im sure she will be able to use these skills she learned and do them on her own and it will be more about swimming then just playing in the water. But that one feature of teaching her to just simply flip over and just float to save her life was invaluable.

They YMCA wont take your baby until they are at least 6 months of age. And if you don't have a pool at home where you guys can just play games and sing songs and splash in the water, because in the beginning thats all your going to do, then I'd say its a fun thing to do with your child. As your child gets a little older they will teach them more and more techniques.

Have fun with it.

No, but if you hear of any I would love to know. C.

Hi, I have 3 boys ages 7,5,and 13 months. To be completly honest with you swimming at 3 months old has no advantages to an infant at all. If I was you I would let him enjoy the bathtub and save your money. Unless you want to take him swimming yourself. : ) I have researched this myself becasue my youngest LOVES water.
The best ages to start swimming LESSONS is between 3 and 5 years.