05:26 PM PDT on Saturday, August 6, 2005

By JEAN ENERSEN / KING 5 News

BELLEVUE, Wash. - It's amazing to watch a tiny baby kicking and paddling under water, swimming toward a parent.

If you're considering a water program for your baby this summer, here’s how to find a good one.

Some babies are just a few months old, yet they are fearlessly paddling underwater.

“We do a lot of parent educating and we go really slowly," said Vera Garibaldi, director of Waterbabies, an infant aquatics class where parent and baby together get acclimated in the water. They learn to play together and slowly gain confidence in the water.

"They have no fear of water,” Garibaldi said. “We are reintroducing them to an environment they are totally comfortable in with the womb."

Casey Cho took the class with his older daughter. Now he's doing it again with 18-month-old Jada. He particularly likes the emphasis on safety and teaching the kids to get to the side of the pool.

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The classes help babies gain confidence in the water.

"Now they are a long way from being able to do it in a real situation, but they understand the fundamentals early on," Cho said.

Kathy Bateman runs the aquatics program at Children's Hospital's therapy pool. She cautions parents not to get confident in any young child's water skills as it will still take years of lessons and physical growth before a child can actually learn to swim.

"I think it's a good skill for them,” she said. “I don't think it drown-proofs them and a lot of times earlier programs advocate that. I don't think it's possible, but it teaches them how to react in the water and that's good."

She also advises that parents wait until their baby is at least six months old before enrolling in such a program or check with their doctor first if they want to enroll earlier.

Waterbabies does not promise parents drown-proofed babies, but many parents say their older children did learn to swim sooner.

Perhaps the greatest benefit is a half an hour of fun and a baby eager to take a long nap when class is finished.

If you're considering an infant aquatics class for your baby, look for a program with trained, experienced instructors, a clean facility where the pool is warmer than 86 degrees and a program that emphasizes a back float. This is often the first safety skill a toddler can do in the water.