Meet the real water babies: Infants make a splash at popular swim class. Staring inquisitively into the lens, these babies look like naturals under the crystal clear waters.
Pictured at the Baby Swim Series class in West London, these cute and sometimes hilarious images show you're never too young to learn.
Phil Shaw and his partner Ana Torres set up London Baby Swim in 2008, offering opportunities for parents and babies as young as six-weeks-old to take to the water and develop their skills.
Into the blue: Phil Shaw's London Baby Swim offers swimming classes for parents and babies as young as six-weeks-old
Underwater daughter: The classes help develop the child's motor skills
And with enrolment numbers rising from just 85 in the first year to 500 this summer, it appears baby swimming classes are the hot new trend.
Shaw, who claims swimming is hugely beneficial for building muscles, holds a photoshoot at the end of every term.
He said: 'The classes are great because the babies develop all sorts of motor skills.
'In the first few years of a baby's life they experience huge development as their brain grows faster than in later years.
No waterwings here: Parents are given a snap of their baby's first dip as part of the service
'With our swimming lessons we are helping babies to make new brain connections and strengthen their learning through skills and stimulation, and a weekly swim provides a good workout and improves the cardiovascular system'.
London Baby Swim has up to eight infants at a time in a class who are led by a team of qualified instructors.
Up until the age of around nine months, babies have a miraculous gag reflex which blocks off their windpipes as soon as they are underwater, allowing them to instinctively hold their breath.
Parents spend up to four weeks teaching their babies to get used to the water, holding them as they splash about.
Hold your breath! Up until the age of around nine months babies have a gag reflex which blocks off their windpipes as soon as they are underwater
Watery world: As the swim classes become ever more popular, there are plans to open more centres
And as part of the package, parents even get to keep a photographic momento of their child's first dip.
Shaw began his underwater career photographing wildlife of all kinds, mainly in tropical spots around the world.
The 49-year-old set the school up in Osterley, West London two years ago after he was approached by another baby swimming centre to do some photography for some of its parents.
With baby swimming becoming more and more popular, Shaw has big plans to open new centres, staring with one in Ashford in Kent this October and another in North London in the winter.
Recognise me? The shots are reminiscent of the front cover of Nirvana's 1991 hit album, Nevermind ( dailymail.co.uk )
No comments:
Post a Comment