Summer has arrived and it's time for our little fish to spill out onto the beaches...
From the very first day at the beach, most babies have a great time. However, don't be discouraged if your child is scared or shows no interest at all.
There are many reasons why a child might be "scared" when they see the vast sea and the sand they are not used to for the first time.
Below we will give you a few instructions for the sea for safe and happy swimming.
- Don't be disappointed if the child gets scared!
First, it's good to put ourselves in our child's shoes. If you were stepping on sand for the first time, how would you feel? A little ticklish, a little strange? Well, that's how children feel too! Show them how to play with sand and talk about hygiene rules (e.g. we don't eat it, or we put a towel on to sit on the sand). Also, for babies, the sea looks like a vast living landscape of water that moves non-stop... and it's a little cold here, by the way! So, if you give them some time to adjust to the new conditions, they're sure to love it.
- Enjoy the water with him.
Children are very strong receivers of our energy. If we are relaxed, the child will be able to overcome any fears he may have. Only in this way will we have a good time with him, but we will also bond more. The best thing you can do in the first baths is to show him the properties of water with your hands (e.g. lifting water with your fingers to make a waterfall, or look! this is how waves are made by pushing the water hard, or look how I float! Look how I dive, etc.)
- Never pressure your child for anything!
Children, no matter what age, only learn through play, so it's a good idea to use all our imagination to make a trip to the beach enjoyable.
For infants, 10 minutes is enough for a first contact with the sea. As they grow older, children themselves show us how much time they want to spend in the water. However, no matter how much they want to, excessive exposure to the sun – with or without a hat – or too many dives should be avoided.
- And yet! Let's avoid the armbands!
When the time comes and your child feels ready to enter the sea, don't use armbands but spaghetti! Armbands are anti-swimming as they don't encourage arm movement. The child rests and doesn't learn to clap their hands. After all, spaghetti has a thousand and two uses for water games.
- The rules of eating
It is recommended that children not eat at least 2-3 hours before, but not during, swimming, because if we eat, blood concentrates in the stomach for the digestion process, and if we enter the water, we force the heart to work harder, to get blood to the stomach and muscles for swimming.
Liquids, on the other hand, are highly recommended!
- Sun protection
Sunscreen with an SPF of up to 30 – which does not have additional chemicals – is most recommended by experts.
It is best not to use sunglasses until the age of seven, because the eye gets used to them and becomes "lazy".
- Your eyes are fourteen!
The macaroni, the board and other lifebuoys do not replace supervision.
Therefore, be careful throughout your child's stay in the water, no matter how familiar they are with swimming! Usually, children who know how to swim have learned to respect the water and know their limits. So if your child doesn't want to go in the deep end, even though he swims, be happy, because he has learned to believe in himself at a healthy level and has learned to enjoy the water with respect for it.
And don't forget! The boldest are also the most feared, Be careful of mattresses and balls that are blown away by the wind at sea and can carry the child away from a safe place.
Do not allow your child to swim when there are waves or sea currents, which are not only dangerous for children, but also for us adults.
The child should swim in the shallows. Remember! An arm's length is the only safe distance between you and the child, so you can pull it out of the water if needed.
Do not allow your child to dive unless you have made sure that the depth in that part of the sea is safe and there are no rocks or stones protruding.
- Sea time.
It is best to go to the sea in the morning hours of 8:00-11:00 and in the afternoon from 18:00 onwards when the sea is warmer but also calmer.
- Don't overdo it.
If the child's lips turn blue/purple and he or she shows signs of fatigue, remove the child from the water immediately and wrap him or her in a dry towel.
- Let your imagination run wild!
Make circular movements, let the water run down the child's body, Put it in a supine position - walk it around.
Do not splash water on your face and especially your eyes because the salt water can sting and scare them.
Find your own toys that will excite them!
- Buckets, inflatable pools, boards and balls make the game even more imaginative!
If you have the courage to carry – in addition to the essentials – your entire dowry to the beach, then don't forget the buckets to create your own sand dynasty! The boards also have many uses, such as a sand chair and a boat for the sea. The pools and the balls that fly here and there, just come to take the game off! Also, for the familiar children, remember to take goggles that will give the children an extra incentive to dive to see the bottom. Not to mention that their eyes won't sting and the child will be more comfortable.
Have a wonderful summer, full of new experiences and memories!
Read more tips for new moms
At this point the child maintains an upward trajectory and each time 
Our child has now become familiar with the water and diving and we are now calmer and more confident in what he can achieve. At this point, the separation of the child from the parent in the pool begins. And where everything is going well and nice, we begin the childish... Let's think of it as a double separation. In the child's mind, everything seems more difficult. 
We're all grown up now and we dive for octopuses, we do somersaults, we jump from high into the water, we're fearless! But, now that we're independent from mom and dad when it comes to our swimming skills, we have more choices in the activities we can do... 
ExpoBaby is
Many parents are thinking to themselves, and perhaps some of you – fortunately – dared to ask us:
The main reason we don't have trial lessons is that our program is based on love. And love for anything, not just water, cannot be judged on one occasion... Safety and familiarity are one of the basic feelings that a child and a parent must feel. Coming to a trial, which means entering a place you don't know for the first time with your child, where everything is new, the water, the coach, your classmates, doesn't have time to develop feelings of familiarity and safety. A person needs time to trust someone else. So how will your child be able to get used to all this new information that is spread out in front of him for the first time? Just think for a moment about how a child feels when he sees a pool for the first time: A large mass of moving water - what is that? Are you going to suck me in? With a guy in a suit - Who is that, my God? – and endless colors and songs and and and… That's why, for the child to become familiar with the space, the coach and the other children, he needs at least 6 lessons.
Our program is educational. The child does not come just to pass the time but also to learn. And to learn, it takes time. If at the first dissatisfaction the child gives up, he will give up forever. He will be left with a negative image and will associate it with something he did not succeed in and will repel him for a long time, perhaps forever. But if you find a way to unlock it, through opportunities, time and many choices and games, then feeling safe in the water is guaranteed forever. This is where the proper training of coaches comes in, who will help the child see the water with a happy eye and believe in himself. When he believes, knowledge is automatic and never leaves.
In order for someone to participate in our program and maintain the hygiene of the pool - one of our main concerns, as the pool is used by infants and pregnant women - it means that they must have gathered all the necessary medical certificates: a medical certificate from a pediatrician for the child, a medical certificate from a pathologist, dermatologist, gynecologist for a female companion and a medical certificate from a pathologist, dermatologist for a male companion. So how can we ask someone to provide all these certificates for just one lesson? It requires commitment from all participants and responsibility to maintain the hygiene and smoothness of the program.
The 95% of children love water and from the first lesson they “break it”. However, there is a possibility that a child has a trauma with water. For example, after a drowning or burning incident and has developed a phobia. In a coastal country like ours, it is unacceptable to have children who drown in a few centimeters of water or are excessively afraid of water. In the best case scenario, the parent has understood where the problem started and so from the beginning we enter into a very calm and long-term program of familiarization with water, with the aim of the child completely overcoming the problem. In these cases, the ideal period for the child’s “recovery” is the 6 lessons, through a fully studied education program again through love. In the worst case, the parent has not understood where the dissatisfaction started (of course, here we are not dealing with a phobia, but with simple dissatisfaction, which however inhibits the child from testing his abilities in the water). In this case, the parent has not understood that the child was dissatisfied somewhere (e.g. in a shower at home, water suddenly fell into the child's eyes and from then on the child screams as soon as you go to wet him) and a trial lesson can be disastrous for his subsequent experience in the water. With a trial lesson, we will not even have time to understand whether the child needs more careful treatment due to the bad experience, in order to finally overcome the dissatisfaction.
Then there is the organizational part. Imagine starting a swimming class with your child and having 2-3 other children in each lesson – individually each time they “try out”. Baby swimming is a team game and if we have trial lessons, no one will ever become a team. One of our/your greatest rewards is that families bond with each other, you become best friends, you go on vacations together and with a trial lesson, you don’t even give your own interpersonal relationships a chance to develop, with people who are very likely to be a good match, since you chose the same activity for your child.
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