EVERY parent wants their child to be able to swim. As soon as your child becomes a confident swimmer it means you can rest a little easier.

And with summer holidays already at the planning stage, now is the best time to start lessons to ensure safety on the beach. At Waterbabies they believe the earlier youngsters start the better - with some babies taking the plunge when they are just two days old.

What makes Waterbabies different from your average swimming lessons is that the little ones are taught to swim underwater from their first lesson.

Nayna Patel, took her premature twins, Ella and Freya, swimming when they were just a few weeks old and Nayna is convinced it helped them develop as well as they have done. By the age of 18 months, both girls were swimming independently having never used armbands in the water.

So impressed was Nayna by the Waterbabies philosophy that she trained to become an instructor - moving from Bristol to Bolton with husband Kash to set up the north west's first group.

"When I started to research it, I discovered that there were so many more activities for mothers and babies in the south than in the north," she says. "Where we lived there was Waterbabies, baby yoga and all sorts of classes.

"I come from Bolton so when the opportunity came up to set up Waterbabies in the north west I jumped at the chance, and being back in Bolton meant that my family could help with the childcare. It was perfect."

Idea

The idea of babies being able to swim independently underwater was established in the 1960s.

One of the best known proponents was a Russian maverick, Igor Tjarkovsky, who claims to have saved his daughter's life by raising her in a warm water tank after she was born more than two months prematurely.

Today, his ideas - combined with techniques pioneered in Australia, America and Scandinavia - are well established and immensely popular.

The Waterbabies philosophy is that using armbands can create a false sense of security in the water. Instead, parents should act as the child's temporary support as they learn to swim. This way children as young as one can soon swim short distances underwater, eventually supporting their own body weight on the water's surface by the age of three.

Babies are born with a gag reflex that kicks in as soon as they are submerged. This reflex makes sure no water enters their lungs.

"The earlier a baby starts swimming, the stronger this reflex is," Nayna explains. "Also, the earlier a baby transfers from the womb environment to the swimming pool, they respond to it much better.

"Drowning is still one of the most common causes of childhood deaths. The sooner a baby starts swimming and is exposed to the water, the more confident they become around water.

"Also, swimming is great exercise, and a great way to combat child obesity."

Bonding

Nayna believes the lessons also provide valuable one-on-one bonding time for mum - or dad - and baby.

She said: "For that half hour of the lesson you and your baby are concentrating fully on each other. It is a real closeness between you, even though there are other people in the class. I see it as the active equivalent of reading your child a bedtime story."

Nayna's son Rohit took to the pool when he was just a week old. Now, at six weeks, he is about to join his first official Waterbabies class.

Says Nayna: "I was thinking about it the other day and was getting butterflies in my tummy - I was so excited. If I feel like that about taking my baby swimming and I'm an instructor, I can't imagine how other mums who have never done it before feel.

"I can honestly say it is the best thing I have done with my children. And I get such a sense of pride from seeing all the babies become little swimmers."

Nayna runs Waterbabies classes in Bolton, Rochdale, Rossendale and Bury. For more information visit waterbabies.co.uk