Water Babies Shropshire, & Black Country

Baby Classes, Childrens Classes

Water Babies shares the physical benefits of baby swimming:

There are endless benefits for your family to go baby swimming. It’s been scientifically proven that baby swimming can support children with their development as they grow throughout their early years.

As part of a Water Babies survey to current customers in 2022, one parent said that through their baby swimming lessons:

“I have noticed that compared to his peers who don’t attend swimming, my son is much better at responding to instructions and is better at responding to new or surprising experiences…He is also much more agile for his age, which my husband and I also attribute to swimming (e.g. he was crawling at 6 months, pulling himself up at 7 months).”

Read on to see how the physical benefits of baby swimming helps little ones both in and out of the pool.

Improved balance

Being in the water helps your baby to start moving independently, before they can crawl or walk. Bouncing and splashing in the water helps to stimulate the vestibular system, which aids balance.

Acting as a leveller, being in a swimming pool is a safe place for little ones to really explore their balance and build their confidence, meaning they’ll become a lot more coordinated out of the water too!

Walking earlier

Research has also revealed that babies typically start walking earlier if they’ve been baby swimming.

Water provides a weightless environment, which gently supports a baby so they can use more muscles and move freely without restriction. This means babies can develop more muscle tone and strength. Movement and physical activity play a huge role in creating nerve connections in the brain.

The more a baby practices early movement skills the stronger these brain connections will be. Due to this, little ones that swim with us from an early age typically begin to walk earlier.

Supporting movements

Water Babies classes are filled with skills to support little one’s development as they grow. This includes cross-lateral movements (ones that cross the midline of the body) like reaching for a ball will help to explore their hand-eye coordination.

Activities such as chasing toys (or grasping hold of them to give them a good ole’ chew) in the pool helps with those finer motor skills; those smaller movements that occur in the wrists, hands, fingers, feet and toes.

Builds strength

For both adults and children, swimming is good for our physical health. It keeps our heart rate up and builds endurance and muscle strength. It also gets our little one’s limbs moving, so that they have a little workout (and us)! It’s the only activity where children can move every muscle in the body, unlike sports or classes ‘on land.’

This results in swimming strengthening their heart and lungs as well as their arm, leg and neck muscles.

Supports lung development and breath control

A big physical benefit of baby swimming is that it strengthens your little one’s heart and lung functions. Breath control and being able to go under the water demonstrates significant lung development taking place in a way that a child cannot do ‘on land’ along with an increase in stamina and fitness.

Learning how to hold their breath underwater is something that is usually taught to children who learn to swim at an older age but the children completing our programme are able to do this much earlier!

Eating and sleeping patterns

Trying to get little ones into a good eating and sleeping routine can be a nightmare! But luckily the physical activity of baby swimming is known to improve both little one’s appetite and sleeping pattern.

During their lesson, your little one is working every muscle they have and exploring the physical freedom that only the water provides. So it’s no surprise when they want a big feed, followed by a long nap after their lesson.

Start swimming today

At Water Babies, we develop with science, and teach with passion. Ensuring we tailor our classes to the little ones, teaching what’s in front of us and supporting them through their developmental stages.

So for 2023, why not try something new and learn a skill for life with baby swimming. An activity both the carer and child can enjoy.

Research by