Drowning is the biggest cause of death for children ages 1 to 4, except for those who die from birth defects. Here in Maine, from 2000 to 2013, there were 14 drowning deaths of kids 4 and younger, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Some parents opt to teach their kids how to swim from a young age. The classes teach very young children, some as young as 6 months, how to float on their backs and get to the stairs of a pool.
As the above video from Vox points out, there is some debate about how effective it is.
The American Academy of Pediatrics in 2010 said that kids between the ages of 1 and 4 can be less likely to drown if they’ve had swimming classes, though at the time there wasn’t enough data to recommend mandatory classes in that age group. And the data at the time was even less convincing for younger kids.
“The AAP does not recommend formal water safety programs for children younger than 1 year of age. The water-survival skills programs for infants may make compelling videos for the Internet, but no scientific study has yet demonstrated these classes are effective,” the organization said.
But the video argues that self-rescue classes can be helpful as a last resort — for instance, if a kid slips away and gets by a fence around a pool or some barrier to getting to a pond or lake.
If you have kids, when did they learn to swim?
