Don’t be……There are lots of new parents that want to experience the joy of baby swimming with their baby, but sadly miss out because they feel a little nervous being in the water.  We experience this a lot, and our Turtle Tots teachers are highly trained in helping mum/dad build their confidence in the water so they can enjoy all the benefits baby swimming offers.

Over the years, we’ve seen many parents come to our lessons who say they have some fear of the water, which usually stems from a difficult or traumatic child-hood experience – in fact this is often why they come to Turtle Tots because they want to make sure their own baby is comfortable and happy with the water from an early age.

For young babies who’ve not long left the comfort of the womb, being in warm water will feel entirely natural to them.  They have no concept of fear, and they accept every new experience they are introduced to by smiling or crying, relying on the empathy of their parents to guide them.

Playing with your baby in water helps them to feel safe and secure and it helps to boost their confidence. This is thanks to the skin-to-skin contact, regular eye contact and big smiles.  Teaching babies in water relies very heavily on this empathy and awareness on the part of the parent.  A calm, relaxed approach achieves far better results than an anxious, fearful one.

For this reason, our professionally trained baby swimming teachers are very compassionate to parents who show signs of being nervous, and they will sensitively work with mum or dad in the water to help relax them and build their confidence.

We have parents who swim with us who have a fear of the water or aren’t confident swimmers. They come with the intention of not passing this on to their child and it is always interesting to watch them grow in confidence, teaching their baby to blow bubbles in the water or doing a face dip in our mirror and mimicking games and songs.  You really don’t need to be confident yourself as you can learn together and your Turtle Tots teacher will always be there with you.

As further reassurance, in 2020, Turtle Tots became the first UK-wide baby swim school to commit to having all its swimming teachers trained in how to help adults with a water phobia, through a partnership with ALP – Aquaphobia Learning Programme.

With emotional wellbeing and an individualised approach being the mainstay of our baby teaching philosophies, the ALP, which mirrors this approach with adults, enables our teachers to provide an empathetic focus for the parents in our classes.

At Turtle Tots, we want to give parents who are nervous, or who have a fear of the water the assurance they will be in the safe hands of a professional swimming teacher who understands the enormous impact that water phobia can have on a person’s life.

The ALP training has equipped our swimming teachers with the empathy, skills and knowledge needed to help adults overcome their fear in a safe, controlled baby swimming environment. Through this, we hope to encourage even more adults to bring their babies and toddlers to lessons so that they are given the opportunity to learn a key life skill from an early age – and experience all the amazing benefits of baby swimming.

To find your local Turtle Tots baby and toddler swimming lessons, please use our ‘find a lesson’ search facility which is featured on the home page https://www.turtletots.com/  Here you will find our venues, days and times of lessons and contact details.