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Babies and Apnea

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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samdive

Mermaid, Musician and Marketer
Nov 12, 2002
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well I was supposed to be going spearing for the first time tomorrow but that has just been cancelled.. and instead I have been asked to go to the pool with my one year old nephew for his swimming lesson.... COOOOOOL!!

I get to experiment with how long a one year old can hold his breath!! anyone got any ideas???


Sam

PS actually what I am REALLY going to do is take my camera and housing and attempt to beat Zena Holloway at her own game.... photos here on Monday if they are any good... maybe I'll get him to wear a nose clip....
 
well.. my brother is his dad and is quite a bit bigger than me... so if I do hold his head under the surface, I need a technique so that no one notices that is what I am doing!!

he's quite a gutsy one year old and has a fisherman for a dad and a fish chef for a mum so he's got cool underwater genes. Oh yeah, and he's called Fred which is a good name for a freediver
 
hi sam.

i have a 4 year old and i can tell you where he is about now.. he sees me apnea swimming so right now that's the only way he seems to swim. when he was younger he could hold his breath for an unfathomably long time.

i think they have a reflex of some sort where they simply DON'T breathe unless their heads are above water.

we do laps together and he can make it about a half lap before he needs to come up for air (usually when he needs air he just drags me down and uses me to sorta boost himself above water...lol gotta love kids)

when they need air they'll come up, i've never held him underwater. now he swims right along side of me.

i think when they need air, they'll just come up

i've often worried if he should be breath-holding.. i've wondered if it will affect his development.. sometimes i'll catch him using the stairs of the pool to hold himself down so he can see how long he can hold his breath.

he can go about a min before he needs to come up, but with swimming for some odd reason his dynamic time is increased a bit.. maybe it's due to what someone earlier described to me as being able to swim apnea longer than static because our minds are taken away from apnea and more focusing on swimming.. i dunno but i hope this helps..
 
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I'm not a baby-bathing expert at all but as far as I can tell they might loose their apnea reflex as they grow older (1year+?), so please be careful sam!

yours
pat
 
Gawd Sam you had me worried there for a minute

Have fun - sound slike it will be great fun...

Donna
 
hey Sam, I think we all wish we had started out that early

However, I must say this because I am an over-worried freak although this may not apply in this case. But be careful with youngin's trying out things like that in the pool. He may not know when it is OK or NOT OK to do what he is doing. There was an unfortunate incident in South Florida (news from my parents) that a young kid drowned after blacking out because they were playing "who can hold their breath longer" while being unsupervised. Very sad story.
 
hello all

i know that a baby is born with the instinct and ability to hold their breath when submerged, but that they lose it after a year or two (or something), unless you keep them practicing. So i guess is that if you keep your 1 yr old nephew holding his breath and swimming he wont lose the ability and may be able to develop it easier when he is older. NOt sure, but it seems like that would be the case
rory
 
thanks all - will let you know how we get on!! only playing really, just want to get a good photo of him underwater!

and no Donna - you didn't need to worry about the title of this thread! quite happy borrowing a baby to experiment on for now and I am sure THAT level of gossip would make it out to Cyprus pretty quickly....

then again some of the girls in Nice were saying that their breathhold got better after childbirth....

S : )
 
I'm looking at my 6 DAY old son on the floor beside me and trying to resist the urge to become an out of control apnea sports dad......but can't wait to get him in a pool.
 
Reactions: naiad
ADR said:
I'm looking at my 6 DAY old son on the floor beside me and trying to resist the urge to become an out of control apnea sports dad......but can't wait to get him in a pool.
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Congratulations!!! :friday
(couldn't give you rep)
 
Reactions: ADR
Word to the Wise,
If you blow on a child's face (five and under) it is an instinct for them to hold their breath. Also, the feeling of water rushing past their face makes them hold their breath. But you have to be careful in a pool, because if they are dunked and come up coughing and sputtering more than three times a day the chlorine concentration can poison them. But they have to get that water in their lungs, if their not coughing it's no problem. (I'm a swim instructor for young kids). Cheers, and good luck.

~Picksmith
 
Had great fun in the pool but Fred didn't feel in the mood for loads of underwater stuff - the tiny babies class before his "toddler" group seemed to do better underwater - but he liked splashing and tried to eat the float....

I will try and retrain him into the peace and quiet of apnea when he is a little older perhaps!

couple of photos attached - sadly it seems Zena has a few years practise on me - I kept getting photos of his feet as he surfaced when we tried uw shots!

Sam
 

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Reactions: island_sands
well yeah but if I can't shoot a baby with a camera - I'm not sure how great I will be at spearing bass!
 


awwwwwwwwwww that's too cute :girlie

i read somewhere recently that babies will automatically hold their breath for 40 seconds underwater, until they start to walk.
 
samdive said:
well yeah but if I can't shoot a baby with a camera - I'm not sure how great I will be at spearing bass!
Click to expand...
Ah but you got him in the centre of the picture didnt you Go for it!
and yeh he is a cutie
 
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