A mom has recently been forced to defend herself after a video she posted online, showing someone tossing her infant son into a swimming pool went viral. In the video, we see 27-year-old Krysta Meyer recording the moment a professional swimming instructor throws her eight-month-old son into a swimming pool during his infant survival class. The class was being taught at Little Fins Swim School located in Colorado Springs, Colorado,
according to news.com.au. Meyer captioned the video: “Oliver amazes me every week. I can’t believe he is barely two months in and is catching on so fast. He is a little fish.”
After the swimming instructor tosses Oliver into the pool, she slips into the water and swims alongside him, as she waits for the child to resurface. She then starts to snap her fingers above his head as the little boy floats on his back. However, the video was met with wide-criticism from viewers online after it received over 53.6 million views on the popular social media platform TikTok. The backlash was so severe that the mom felt she needed to set the record straight after she began receiving death threats!
TikTok
Mayer would state in a Facebook post:
“From companies asking to work with me rather it’s advertising their products or from licensing my video to death threats. I hate social media.”
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During an interview with Motherly, Meyer said: “I get it, it looks bad. It’s not for everyone,” but she also insisted that she is very proud of the video because getting parents to talk about water safety ultimately saves more young lives.
Meyer also said that she would like to produce an educational YouTube video.
Motherly also contacted Lauri Armstrong, the owner of Little Fins Swim School, who explained that her lessons are not the sam eas those taught in Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) lessons — which do not throw babies in the water. In her statement to Motherly, the owner said:
“Our instructors are highly trained and we provide constant ongoing professional development training and skills workshops to keep up on all the latest safety information and skills.
“In the video, Ms. Jill tossed the baby in the pool. We do this as part of our safety and survival level to pass, because when kids fall into water, it’s not always graceful or pretty.
“It can be a disorienting experience.”
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However, Dr. Andrew J. Bernstein, a pediatrician with the American Academy of Pediatrics, told Fatherly in an interview that Pediatricians don’t usually recommend this kind of swimming lesson for young children:
“Although it seems to work for some children, there is a significant risk water getting into the lungs if a baby doesn’t hold his or her breath for long enough, or at the right time.”
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The doctor noted that this could lead to pneumonia, lack of oxygen to the brain, or drowning.
The Independent
reports that organizations such as Royal Life Saving Society UK and Swim England have also warned parents against enrolling their children in these kinds of classes. Also, Francoise Freedman, a medical anthropologist at the University of Cambridge and expert on baby swimming,
told The Times:
“[Forcing] a baby or toddler to float relies on extreme traumatic methods and, sadly, no amount of praise will compensate for the memory of inflicted pain – it just gets pushed into the recesses of our brain, where it is recorded.”
Do you feel this mother put her son’s life at risk with these methods? Here’s an extended look at the video so you can judge for yourself.
