Gift Certificates Available!

Gift Certificates are now available for ISR lessons! Contact your local instructor to find out details. To find your local instructor, go to http://www.infantswim.com/

Holiday and Winter Water Safety Tips

Holiday and Winter Water Safety Tips

1. CEO Supervision (Constant Eyes On) - Never turn your back on your child around water. It takes just seconds for him/her to be in serious trouble. Segment the supervision responsibilities so there are never questions about which adult is responsible for watching the child and be aware of the distractions unique to the winter months: holiday parties, house guests, etc.

2. Educate Others - When traveling to relatives’ and friends’ homes they may not understand the importance of keeping gates closed, doors locked, closing toilet seats, emptying buckets, etc. Visiting family, holiday parties and celebrations can lead to breakdowns in routine supervision and effective barriers to the water.

3. Decoration Hazards - Decorations and lights can pose problems with young children around the house and water. Watch for lights and electrical cords around water, make sure no outside decorations provide a means for a child to climb over a fence or open a locked gate.

4. Maintain Pools in the Winter - Keep pools well-maintained with clear water even if it is too cold to swim. If someone falls in, they can be seen and be helped faster. Pool covers need to be drained of accumulated rain water and free of debris.

5. Hot Tubs - Supervision must be one adult per child due to the high temperatures and turbulence of the water in a hot tub. When young children are in the hot tub, keep the temperature below 90 degrees Fahrenheit and limit exposure to less than ten minutes.

6. Bath Tubs - Do not allow anyone who is uneducated about bath tub safety to bathe your child. Consider bathing an infant or young child in a tub with a handheld shower attachment, eliminating the risk of drowning in accumulating bath tub water.

7. Self-rescue Skills – Teach young children self-rescue skills. In addition to pool fences, alarms and gates, it can be another layer of defense. Survival swimming and a demonstration of the roll-back-to-float skills prior to all water recreation is vital year round.

For a full Family Aquatic Safety Checklist from Infant Swimming Resource visit:
http://www.infantswim.com/safety/index.html

For last minute ISR Gift Ideas for your little swimmers, visit the ISR Seal Store. A portion of all purchases go toward ISR's Community of Caring Scholarship Fund - www.isrsealstore.com

ISR on Hobnonbwilson.com!

Check out this great ISR video by www.hobnobwilson.com! To get the latest news and happenings in Wilson County, visit www.hobnobwilson.com.

The Sooner the Safer

Remember this baby?? My son was 8 months old when he was skilled to rollback and float unassisted.

Yates Swimming at 8 months from Kelly Swindell on Vimeo.

Here he is at 20 months old learning the swim-float-swim sequence.

Yates at 20 months learning the swim-float-swim sequence. from Kelly Swindell on Vimeo.

I believe the earlier you start your baby learing ISR Self-Rescue swimming skills the better. It gives them confidence and the respect for the water. I would compare it to "programming" them to respond appropriatley to the stimulus of the water. This response becomes second nature. Vital tools they need to survive an aquatic accident.

Because accidents happen in an instant....

ISR believes in constant supervision. Nothing can compare to your eyes constantly being on your child at all times. Here is my 18-month-old son playing in the pool on vacation. Though, we were watching him, you can see how easy it is for an accident to occur. Fortunately, he has been taught self-rescue swimming skills through the ISR program. Notice he is calm and does not panic when he slips on the steps. I am so happy my baby loves the water but happier that he has skills to survive!

Yates 18 mos old playing in the pool. from Kelly Swindell on Vimeo.

Beautiful Slideshow about ISR

This presentation was put together by some ISR Instructors for the Annual Trevor “Birdie” Davis Water Safety Foundation Golf Tournament 2009. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Brad and Amy Davis decided to found the non-profit 501(c)(3) Trevor "Birdie" Davis Water Safety Foundation. For them, it seemed to be the only way to bring some-thing positive out of the worst day of their lives. The mission of the Foundation is to save children from accidental drowning by educating both children and adults about potential water hazards. The Foundation has raised over $60k, and has donated funds to help train ISR instructors in the Washington D.C. area.

Trevor “Birdie” Davis Water Safety Foundation Slide Show from Infant Swimming Resource on Vimeo.

CPSC Warns of In-Home Drowning Dangers With Bathtubs, Bath Seats, Buckets

Check out this story on household drowning dangers:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cpsc-warns-of-in-home-drowning-dangers-with-bathtubs-bath-seats-buckets-63680342.html

ISR Featured in "The Tennessean."

We are very excited that ISR was featured in Nashville's newspaper, The Tennessean today. Check out the story here:

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090707/FEATURES01/907070312/1004/FEATURES/Toddler+swim+classes+help+prevent+tragedy

ISR featured on Good Morning America

ISR was featured today on Good Morning America, as well as tips to keep your child safe around water. Check it out!!!

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7975858

"Luck is not a Strategy."

Watch Harvey Barnett, PhD, (founder of the ISR program) discuss the best ways to prevent childhood drowning. He explains the science behind survival swimming and provides valuable statistics. Can you believe 88% of childhood drownings are supervised?!? Find out more in this short and informational segment.

Wonderful News

Today, I received an email from the mother of a former ISR student. His name is Evan and is 26 months old. Hearing things like this is what ISR is all about. Nothing can take the place of adult supervision, but accidents can happen in an instant. As a mother and an ISR instructor, I believe in the effectiveness of this program. Here is some of the email written by the little boy's mother:

"...was a success! Just wanted to let you know...this evening my mother-in-law and I were playing ball with Evan around the pool. He was fully clothed. The ball went into the pool on the other side of where the two of us were standing....... He was bending over and couldn't get the ball. He wanted my help and I was just about to go to him when he fell head first into the pool (deep end).

.....HE DID IT...turned over and floated right to the top on his back. He whined some and I held my hand out and said, Evan get mommy's hand (I wanted him to flip over), he wouldn't, so I went ahead and pulled him out. No trauma what so ever...his next words were..."play basket ball, mommie"?

I could care less if he doesn't swim the rest of the summer...what just happened is why I invested the time and money into ISR....well worth it!"

ISR featured on Foxnews.com/health:

Check it out!!

http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=011008&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=5676530&referralPlaylistId=playlist

ISR in the news again!

Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 27th, ISR will be featured on CNN and FOX.com.CNN's Headline News- 7:13 a.m. ET- 12:20 p.m. ET- 3:35 p.m. ETFOXNewsHealth.com- 5:00 p.m. ET (Because of the news cycle we could be bumped to earlier or later times) Don't miss it!

ISR Is the Final Layer of Protection

Photo copyright 2009, ISR Instructors Middle Tennessee

Every year, stories of the tragic accidental deaths of infants and children by drowning flood our newspapers and TV news stations. We cannot ignore the startling statistics, the heart wrenching stories of tragedy, and the impact that the loss of these children has on our community. We are all aware of the dangers that swimming pools and other aquatic environments pose. Drowning is the one of the leading causes of accidental death for children ages 4 and under. But these are preventable tragedies and the solution is now available in our community. When supervision lapses, ISR is the final layer of protection to keep you child safe in and around the water.

Photo copyright 2009, ISR Instructors Middle Tennessee

ISR 100% Safety Record

Infant Swimming Resource is the safest provider of self-rescue swimming lessons for babies and toddlers. Unlike other swimming lessons, ISR is the only medically-sound and behaviorally based approach to swimming lessons, using techniques that are safe and developmentally appropriate for young children. ISR’s nationwide network of certified instructors teaches young children how to safely play in and around the water using self-rescue skills in tandem with basic swimming skills to give them the competence required to save their own lives in a drowning scenario.

ISR has trained more than 175,000 children, delivered seven million lessons with no injuries, and received recognition from the medical community as the safest and only swim instruction program that is proven to save lives.

Check out ISR's informative Parent DVD below, or watch it at: http://vimeo.com/channels/38015

Pieces of the Puzzle

This is a video of Riley performing her ISR skills. She recently celebrated her third birthday. She is in her final week of ISR lessons. This program focus on developing individual skills and incrementally builds on those skills. It is similar to creating pieces of a puzzle. Then, as the student successfully develops and perfects her skills, we begin to put the pieces together. Soon, we have a child who can actually save themself. No other program can compare to the safety and science behind ISR.

Customized and Confident

ISR lessons are customized and individual to every child who enters the program. All instructors practice the same techniques and methods which are backed by over 40 years of scientific theory and research. However, ISR instructors are also trained to customize the lessons according to a child's motor skills, disposition and many other various factors. We consider what pace your child needs for the lesson to be effective. Your ISR instructor will work with your child's initial skills to help him or her gain both competence and confidence around the water. ISR has a deep passion for water safety and will not make your child over-confident or fearless, but will educate your child and teach them a healthy respect for the water.
Check out Cayden in the video below. He is 17 months old and is in his final week of lessons.

When is the best time to enroll your child in ISR?

Photo copyright 2009, ISR Instructors Middle Tennessee

Many parents wonder when the best time is to enroll their child into the ISR program. Since drowning is not seasonal, we feel anytime is the best time. However, some parents tend to wait until the swimming season is in full swing before making the decision to enroll their child. We would like to encourage parents to enroll their children and get them skilled before the swim season begins. This eliminates or keeps interferences to a minimum. Interferences can be anything that hinders, lengthens, or interrupts your child's learning process of the self-rescue skills during lessons. A few interferences may be too much "free time" spent in the pool outside of lessons or even being absent from lessons due to vacations. Consistency is important to learning these skills. Bringing your child every day will increase the rate of progress and retention of learned skills. Once the students attain the survival skills, we show parents how to play with their kids in the pool to keep their child's skill level at peek performance.

Refresher Lessons

Photo copyright, ISR 2009. All rights reserved.

Children grow and develop rapidly from infants to toddlers and young children. This development process represents improved strength, coordination, and a more finely tuned cognitive ability. In accordance with this growth, children enrolled in ISR return periodically to participate in Refresher Lessons. These lessons are designed to fine tune your child’s existing self-rescue skills to meet the demands of their growing bodies. We encourage parents to enroll their children in refresher lessons at least once every six months upon completing the ISR program. Contact your local instructor for more information.

Photo copyright, ISR 2009. All rights reserved.

ISR in the News!

Michigan - Jan. 23, 2009 - WZZM13's Take Five program reports on how Infant Swimming Resource is helping to save lives in Michigan. The state of Michigan spends $104 million on near drownings per year on children under the age of 5. One parent, Michael Petrella, found the closest infant water safety classes were held in Ohio. Therefore he decided to become certified himself with ISR. Now he's helping teach young children in his community ISR self-rescue aquatic survival skills that could potentially save their lives. Scroll down to see the news footage.