Why can babies just a few months old dive underwater?

Nobody knows how to swim naturally. Maybe there is, but that is a rare strange thing.

You see in the ads and perhaps the most famous, is on Nirvana's album Nevermind album, featuring images of one or more babies just holding their babies swimming. You wonder why babies are able to swim without having to learn like that, even soaked in water and seem to be unharmed. Could babies born swim? Not.

Picture 1 of Why can babies just a few months old dive underwater?
Children often learn to swim from quite early to reduce the rate of drowning as they grow up.

Children are still too young, even too weak to actively hold their breath or keep their heads floating on the water. The swim is a reflex of children when they are immersed in the water, the swimming movements make you feel that they know how to swim before, but they are not. When submerging the whole body under water like that, according to the reflex reflex, the baby's heart rate and breathing rate will slow down, named bradycardic response , acting as its name suggests.

Not all, only the majority of reflex babies hold their breath for a short time when immersed in water, the goal is to protect their trachea. Children often learn to swim from quite early to reduce drowning rates when growing up, but this method is not really . reliable. It should be noted that their muscles are still weak, unable to be used to perform strong activities such as swimming.

Picture 2 of Why can babies just a few months old dive underwater?
This diving swimming reflex is reinforced by the ability to save oxygen in body activities.

Most babies will have this reflex to refrain from breathing, swimming and diving until they reach six months of age. This reflex consists of a number of factors such as apnea - unaware that you need to breathe to survive, slow heart rate to use less oxygen and slowing blood circulation, mostly in areas areas like fingers and toes.

Specifically, your baby's heart rate may drop to about 20%, your baby's glottis will close tightly, water entering the upper airway will be transferred to the esophagus and into the stomach. This diving swimming reflex is reinforced by the ability to save oxygen in body activities. Saving oxygen is transferred to the lungs and heart.

It is possible to consider this child's ability to hold breath, swim and swim as the body's defense mechanism .

Traditionally, teaching babies to swim will start when they are 4 years old or older, because children under 4 years of age are considered too weak to swim. However, it is more popular for children to swim when they are very young. Australian Coaches and Swim Teachers recommend parents can let their children start learning to swim very early, from about 4 months old. In the US, the Red Cross also offers similar swimming classes. Any child who has enough ability to catch up and raise his head 'hot' is said to be able to swim.

However, experts also say that this is not an absolute measure to protect your child from drowning. Parents still need to keep an eye on their children, unable to use the reason 'they have learned to swim from a few months' to justify the unfortunate circumstances that can happen. All parents should protect their little babies with the most prudent measures possible.