Bath time fun

Newborn babies are naturally at home in water, having spent nine months in the amniotic fluid in the womb.

Russian swimming pioneer, Igor Tjarkovsky, asserts that babies’ adaptation to water is established long before birth, hence the importance for mothers to invest time and effort to spend time in water during pregnancy. Frequent exposure of babies to water will create continuity between foetal and newborn movement, remembering the pre-birth sensations of water surrounding the body.

The best way to introduce your child to the water is in the comfort of your own home. Make bath time one of the pleasurable experiences of the day. Fun bath times and water play at home can start the building blocks of water confidence in little ones, making it so much easier to transfer to the swimming pool and swimming lessons.

Introduce your child to water from day one in a large bathtub rather than a baby bath. Let your child discover the joy of buoyancy in the water. Changing your child’s position in the bath, by either lying on the back or on the tummy helps to provide different sensations and perspectives and it also exercises different muscles.

Bathtime gives the child’s tactile receptors stimulation which is a wonderful opportunity for them to learn the different bodily sensations. The best fun in the bath is splashing your hands and kicking your legs. Some great benefits are sensory stimulation; the feeling of splashing in the water can really be exciting and helps to stimulate your little one’s senses and can also help to improve hand-eye coordination and they can learn about cause and effect. As a minimal impact exercise, splashing can help your child to build strength and improve their motor skills.

Bath time should be loving moments spent interacting with your child. If your child enjoys the bath time, maintain and transfer this love of water to the pool where the water is everywhere, and the splashes are bigger. By using the daily bath routine to bring in play that compliments swimming, you elevate simple daily exercises into essential learning tools. The “Learn to swim” books are a fantastic way to make bath time more fun and educational. Your child can lie on his tummy like Calvin Crocodile, blow bubbles like Benny Beaver and kick legs like Danny Duck, to name just a few of the characters in this fun and educational series of books.

Being happy and confident around water and being able to swim is a skill for life – one that opens so many opportunities for family fun as well as one that can save a life.

Remember to keep bathtime safe. While it is important to make bathtime fun, safety should always be a top priority. Never leave your child unattended in the bathtub.