Monday, October 19, 2009

Aqua Boy

I took Drake to his first “Mommy and Me” swim class yesterday. To say he loved it is an understatement; the kid seems to be part fish. He impressed his instructor with his calm entrance into the water and his complete lack of fear getting his face wet (and not just splashed, he likes to submerge his face in the water to blow bubbles).

We spent most of the 30 minutes “swimming” after a ball that he’d grab, throw, and “swim” to again. It was so adorable and encouraging to see him kick his little legs and move his arms to get to the ball. By the end of the class, she had him floating on his back across the pool, which he loved, too.

The pool is heated to a spa-like 93 degrees. And the class is tailored to kids under 3 who have physical and/or mobility issues. There were about five little ones in the class, all with a parent in the water working on the games with them.

We can’t wait to go back. It’s once a week through the winter/spring. I am really excited to have found “something else” for Drake to do that is fun and therapeutic. Also, his pediatrician said swimming is the best activity to do in winter as you can’t catch the flu in a chlorinated pool. It’s way less germ-y than the playground or gym-based class.

3 comments:

Hopeful Mother said...

Awesome that you found this!

My hubby has been taking Al.ex for informal aquatherapy in a therapy pool run by a city 30 min. from us. There is no formal Mommy and Me or focus on disability. I wish we had such a program around here.

We've found Al.ex to be more confident and the hot water does wonders for his muscles. I think water is a great equalizer for kids, too.

Good point about the flu. I hadn't thought about that. What are you doing in regard to H1N1 vaccine - just curious?

Kelly said...

hi HM

yes, we are planning to vaccinate for h1n1. the kids got the seasonal flu vaccine in sept. we are waiting for the h1n1 shot to be available at our peds office as they only have the sniff-mist version now. are you planning to vaccinate your kiddos?

Hopeful Mother said...

Yes, we gave both boys the sniff-mist version last week... I was a little bit worried since it was the "live inactivated" version of the virus, but the alternative here is that we end up waiting even longer for the injectable version (no one seems to know when/if it will be available). Our ped. office only had 40 doses of the mist.

They have to go back in 2 weeks for the booster (if there is any left.)

In the meantime, 3 children have died in our county. All were patients of CCS, so chancing the exposure there just didn't seem like a good idea.

Alex has been no worse for the wear. Mild side effects of diarrhea that day, and that's all. :-)