Water Babies

You’ve always been the model of safety. You wear your seatbelt religiously (and would even if it weren’t the law), unplug appliances to prevent fires, and use personal protection every time (except when your children were conceived, but that was planned, right?)

Now that you’re Safety Mom, the key to keeping baby safe isn’t locks on cabinets and constant supervision – it’s teaching them how to survive in the water.

Good thing Hawai‘i now has four certified Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) instructors to individually teach water survival skills to kids 6 months to 6 years old.

After seeing results in friends’ children and online videos (watch for yourself on their website ), ISR instructor Deb Pyrek wanted her kids to learn the first and only drowning prevention technique with a 100-percent safety record, but with no local instructors, she first had to become one herself. She and all ISR instructors customize lessons for each child’s physiology and development, and create lessons that last last just 10 minutes a day, five days a week for four to six weeks. Instructors use verbal and non-verbal cues to teach children to kick, float, and save themselves in water.

Which means you’ll still be there to protect them.But you won’t have to keep them under lock and key.

Until they become teenagers, that is.

Visit Infant Swimming Resource for a list of instructors and locations, including ISR Certified Instructor Deb Pyrek, reachable at 808.542.7074.