2 year old diving ?

[Brett Hatch]

I'm sorry , I should've been more clear! The 2 year old wasn't on a tank. Just freedive. The dad took him down like 8 or 10 feet and took him up. U guys think there's any risk to that?

Oh. Substantially less risk vs scuba for sure, but still a fair amount of risk. Babies and toddlers have a reflex that will prevent them from inhaling water when submerged, a phenomenon known as infant swimming or baby swimming. However, they are not capable of "intentionally" holding their breath, and they are not physically strong enough to swim, which is why kiddie pools are so shallow, and so on.

However, there are still risks involved with the pressure gradient -- 10 feet is enough for adults to have issues with clearing their eustachian tubes, for example. Not sure if babies are affected more or less by this type of stuff, but I'd be concerned.

 

[zaf88]

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[Belzelbub]

Edit: I just saw that this was freediving, not SCUBA. In that case, I say it depends.

Depends on how comfortable the kid is in the water.

My girls started water survival lessons well before their 1st birthday. Once they could walk, the survival lessons turned more to rough swim lessons. I don’t recall the exact age, but they were able to retrieve objects from the bottom of the pool when they were still very young. Under supervision, of course.

Apart from while on the boat, they never once wore any floatation devices around water. Those provide a false sense of security.

 

[zaf88]

Teaching scuba to 10 year old kids scares me. I haven't done it nor would I ever consider it. This is off topic a little but interestingly very young kids, 6 months to 1 year old, have an inherent ability to hold their breath when submerged underwater. My wife and I took both our sons to a class to instill in them some comfort in the water. The class was designed to get the kids comfortable in and around the water and to give them the ability to self-rescue if they fell into the pool. This sounds unbelievable but it works. After a few sessions getting them comfortable in the water we would dunk them underwater briefly. The kids instinctively held their breath. Eventually, we taught them to dog paddle a few feet to grab and hang on to the edge of the pool.

Was it isr, the swim class?

I may get flamed for this but I had my 4 year old on a 13cf bail out bottle in the bathtub when she was like 4 years old. Then at 6 I took her in a shallow pool like 3 feet deep but kept her at the surface. She's 7 now. She knows how to equalize. But still don't let her go lower than 3 or 4 feet. She absolutely loves it . Should I stop this ?

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Freediving is less dangerous for scuba, however, I think it is better at that age to just teach them to swim/float as to give themselves the ability to avoid drowning.

Having kids breath off a modified mouthpiece/regulator is fine, but I wouldn't do that at depth for the medical reasons I poorly explained earlier.

We all love diving, but our children have their whole lifetime ahead of them. My daughter will learn to dive when the time is right. She has a long life ahead of her, so why risk seriously injury? It doesn't make sense.

 

[Belzelbub]

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Infant Swimming Resource. That’s the organization we used for our girls. I highly recommend. Not cheap, but worth it.

Both my daughters have (while under supervision) fallen in the pool. Both self rescued before an adult responded. Though, in one case, I did hold myself back to see what she would do. Neither had any fear of the water after those incidents. Respect, but not fear.

 

[zaf88]

I do agree. This is going to sound like brag camp but my 7 year old has always been advanced. She walked early talked early and has a much older mentality than her age. I have a 5 year old daughter too. She is the sweetest creation on earth but I haven't let her anywhere near the reg. Not even in the bathtub. She's just not there mentally.

 

[zaf88]

Infant Swimming Resource. That’s the organization we used for our girls. I highly recommend. Not cheap, but worth it.

Both my daughters have (while under supervision) fallen in the pool. Both self rescued before an adult responded. Though, in one case, I did hold myself back to see what she would do. Neither had any fear of the water after those incidents. Respect, but not fear.

When they were babies I was going to do isr! But man was it pricey here in nyc. I think they wanted something like 350$ a week. And each class was like 10 or 15 minutes I think

 

[zaf88]

Freediving is less dangerous for scuba, however, I think it is better at that age to just teach them to swim/float as to give themselves the ability to avoid drowning.

Having kids breath off a modified mouthpiece/regulator is fine, but I wouldn't do that at depth for the medical reasons I poorly explained earlier.

We all love diving, but our children have their whole lifetime ahead of them. My daughter will learn to dive when the time is right. She has a long life ahead of her, so why risk seriously injury? It doesn't make sense.

That's really what I wanted to find out. Do the immature eustachian tubes on kids that young make them more vulnerable ? I'd have to think depth would increase ear infections at the very least

 

[OceanEyes]

Basing your life choices on random video clips seems to me to be inadvisable, criminally negligent, paralyzingly stupid, or exceedingly clever. Each situation requires a modicum of judgement as to whether or not you should emulate what you’ve seen.

You saw a video of a little kid teaching you how to perform a magic trick with a deck of cards, colorful bandana, or bit of string? Go ahead and have your child give it a try. Saw a video of a one-armed guy named Lefty teaching you how to perform a trick with a full gas can, razor blade, and blowtorch? You might want to think twice before you decide to proceed.

Do you really think that is acceptable to for a toddler to breath compressed air at any depth? If you have even the most rudimentary understanding of SCUBA diving, or of children why would you even have to ask?

Oops. I was typing my initial reply when the OP clarified his initial post. I had my son in a pool when he was about a month old, and water-play was an almost daily part of our lives. He was drown-proofed before he could walk, and while still a toddler he could swim to the bottom of a 10’ deep pool to retrieve my watch, then ascend and swim the length of the pool. I was ALWAYS with him, and never tried to push or cajole him to do anything he did not wish or have the capability to do, and insured that it was always fun for him.