The Duffy Family

Thursday, February 07, 2008

ISR:Infant Swimming Resource

I was at our MOPS group a couple of weeks ago and the speaker was a certified ISR instructor. What is ISR you ask? Well, it is (and I quote) "a nationally recognized system of aquatic survival instruction for infants and young children." Basically, my children are learning how to survive if they were to ever find themselves in a drowning situation. Scary...yes. I don't even want to think about it. If you go to the website www.infantswim.com you can read all about it and even see video footage of what your child will be able to do once completing the program. The amazing thing is they can start with a child as young as 6 months!!!!! In children under a year old, they will teach them (they have a 100% success rate) should they fall into water, how to get back up to the top of the pool, flip over onto their back and float while crying until rescued. In children over a year old, they teach them also to float, but also how to roll over and swim towards the side of the pool. They put this together and form a float-swim-float sequence. In both cases, your child will be able to save his/her life. Most drownings happen within 5 minutes...brain damage before that. There is a video on the website of an 11 month old performing these skills and floating for 5 minutes before his dad goes in after him. It is hard to watch, but reinforces the importance of that 5 minute mark. Having these skills can prevent unecessary heartache. Well, I didn't have to see it twice...SIGN ME UP! I am always so nervous with the kids around pools. I will probably still be nervous and watch them like a hawk, but just in case...they will have the necessary skills to survive.

The whole program is 4-6 weeks. They go M-F and have one on one time with an instructor for up to 10 minutes each day. I'll be honest...the first 2-3 days were HORRIBLE!!! I knew they would eventually settle in, but I didn't know if I as the mommy would make it to that point! I couldn't bear hearing them screaming and crying and begging to not have to do this. The very first thing they learned was breath control...which meant going under and coming right back up: learning to hold their breath. We are now in our second week and believe it or not...THEY LOVE IT!!! They still have a long ways to go, but are doing wonderfully. Ella Kate is going under and pulling herself through the water by kicking and pulling with her arms. Eli is not quite as good as Ella Kate in this area but he is learning how to float and getting more comfortable with that. It is probably going to take Eli a little longer just because he has more "established fears." I am so proud though and amazed at how far they've come. The instructors are great with them and the kids love them. I encourage anyone who has young children to take advantage of a program like this. It's not swimming lessons, but will save your child's life if needed.

Here are some pictures of the kids from their lesson today. Fridays are video days so hopefully I'll be able to do that and then starting tomorrow I'll post the footage I take on the blog and you can follow our progress :)