Why We Chose ISR Swim Lessons for Our Toddler: Our Experience + What to Expect
Did you know the #1 cause of accidental death in infants and young children ages 0 to 4 years of age is drowning? That is a horrifying statistic. During my time as an EMT running a 911 ambulance in LA county, we responded to a lot of unimaginable calls. Thankfully, I never responded to any drowning calls — but I had partners who did. I heard stories of calls where little kids had drown and by the time EMS got there, it was unfortunately too late. These stories have been burned into my brain — and now, with a toddler of my own and a pool in my backyard, the stories play continually in my mind. Although we have a million baby gates and do as much as we can to keep our daughter safe and away from the pool, it’s impossible to keep our eyes on her 100% of the time. As a parent, nothing is more important than knowing your child is safe—especially around water.
When I first heard about ISR (Infant Swimming Resource), I was both intrigued and overwhelmed. The ISR method is designed to teach infants (6-12 months old) how to roll onto their backs, float, and breathe until help arrives. For children 12 months and older, they are taught the swim-float-swim method —empowering them with real-life survival skills. At the end of the classes, children are able to survive in the event they ever find themselves in the water unsupervised.
How is ISR different from other swim schools like Aqua-Tot’s or Safe Splash? Parents are not allowed in the water with the child, unlike other swim schools. The classes are personalized for each child. In order for a child to be enrolled, the parent/guardian must complete an extensive medical questionnaire regarding the child’s medical history. It is then reviewed by a medical team and they reach out if they need additional information. That happened to be the case in our situation — because my daughter has a g-tube, laryngomalacia & tracheomalacia, the medical team had a lot of questions regarding her PO feeds, the status of her g-tube and what the site looks like, and lots of questions about her breathing/airway. I did have to send over a form to her pediatrician for clearance as well due to her medical history — once she was cleared, we got the green light to start lessons by the medical team. These classes also require quite a bit of commitment from families as well — 5 days a week, 10 minutes per day, for 6 weeks. Not gonna lie, that part is pretty annoying. To get your kid into their bathing suit & swim diaper then drive somewhere for them to be in the water crying for 10 minutes, to then get them dressed into dry clothes and put them back into their car seat and drive home, 5 days a week for 6 weeks — ANNOYING. But in the end, I know it will be worth it and life-saving for my daughter. I’d much rather be annoyed for 6 weeks then lose my child forever to something that is 100% preventable.
In this blog, I’ll walk you through our personal experience with ISR, what a typical class looks like, cost, how my daughter responded, and what I think every parent should know before starting.
Let’s jump into cost comparison & where you can find an ISR Instructor: We live around the Houston, TX area — there are 54 certified ISR instructors around us within 100 miles. Pricing varies from $120-$140 per week around our area — the one we chose is $125. So $125 x 6 weeks = $750. Plus, there is a $105 non-refundable, ISR Registration Fee that covers the medical background check I talked about earlier. When it’s all said and done, it’s roughly an $855 investment. I am not naive — I recognize this investment is EXPENSIVE. It is an absolute privilege to be able to enroll my daughter in this class. If you are interested in signing up for classes but can’t due to financial reasons, please know there are scholarships available for your child to be able to take this class free of charge. Click here to find out more about those scholarships. If you’re interested in enrolling your child in an ISR class, you can find an instructor here!
Sidenote: I think it’s also pertinent for me to say that a lot of the ISR instructors do their lessons out of their homes because they have their own pools or they will pay someone they know to let them use their home’s pool. It is much more advantageous for them to use their own pool than to work at a facility, in my understanding and my opinion. That way they have the flexibility to make their own schedules and aren’t tied to a corporation to pay them. Our instructor does lessons out of her home, something I personally don’t mind. Each time we go, there are about 4 other families chillin’ on the back porch while their child is either in the water for their lesson or waiting for their lesson to begin. There are ISR instructors that do work at a facility, so if you don’t feel comfortable being at someone’s house, that may be a better option for you and your family.
Week 1: We started on Monday and actually were only able to go 4 days this week, due to my daughter getting her 15 month vaccines on Friday. I asked the instructor if she should still come and she said it is ISR policy for children to not attend swim on days they receive , vaccinations — no biggie. I did still have to pay for that day because it was not discussed in advance. A bit of a bummer, but whatever. During the 4 days we did attend though, my daughter cried through the entire 10 minute class. If you’re thinking about signing your kid up for ISR, please know they are almost 100% going to cry. If hearing your child cry makes you feel uncomfortable, it is in yours and their best interest to probably have someone else take them to the lessons or don’t sign them up to begin with. Understand that #1, they are with a stranger in an unfamiliar place. #2, they are doing something they have never done before. Even though you’re there and they can see you, it’s still different for them and the crying is them telling you, “I don’t like this” or “This is hard”. It’s ok. They won’t die. Actually they will live as a result of these classes — try to think of the big picture versus the single moments. Many times my daughter would look at me crying and say “all done” in sign language or “GO” cause she wants to get out (and other kids who were before my daughter in their lessons say this stuff too and cry the whole time also). As a parent, it really is tough to hear, but again — BIG PICTURE. Through the 4 days, the instructor only worked on getting my daughter to lay her head back in the pool. That’s it. She would hold her under her armpits and kind of tilt her backwards so she would put her head back into the water to learn to “float”. By the end of the 4 days, I ended up taking her into our pool on Saturday. She did not cry or freak out with me, she actually was super happy and enjoying the pool, splashing everywhere. I told her, “mama, we are gonna put our head back in the water.” I mimicked what the instructor did, lo & behold, she tilted her head right back in the water with no problem. I was shocked. We had her in swim classes in California at Safe Splash Swim School from the time she was 7-8 months until we moved to Texas at 10 months old. We went every Saturday and part of the class was to have them “float” against the parent and she would NEVER put her head back and she would stiffen up trying to sit herself up anytime we would try to put her head in the water. Even weeks ago in our own pool, I tried to get her to put her head back and she kept fighting me. So for her to put her head back in the water like it’s nothing, WILLINGLY, definitely shocked me. Just 4 days into the class and she’s already doing that? I know she is going to get the hang of the swim-float-swim so soon and all the tears will have been worth it!
Week 2: Monday was Memorial Day, so the instructor took that day off her schedule. We were not charged for that day, thankfully. We attended Tuesday and it was a bit rough. My daughter recognized the house and realized #1, where we were — #2, what was going to happen. She immediately started crying and tried to run for the door, LOL. Unfortunately there were 2 kiddos before her (sometimes the instructor gets backed up due various reasons), so we just waited there and she cried for 20 minutes of waiting and then throughout the entire duration of her lesson. So 30 minutes total. She did amazing though with putting her head back and even though she was crying, when she came up she would clap and scream YAY. Wednesday, we were supposed to go earlier in the day because the instructor had a family event later in the day she couldn’t miss, but there were some pretty severe thunderstorms in the morning with lots of rain and lightening so the instructor cancelled sessions for the day.
Week 3: This week we saw the most results. I’m sure because it was the first week we went all 5 days. My daughter has still cried pretty much the whole time through the lesson, but it’s far less intense than in the beginning. This week, her instructor would have her lay on her back in the floating position and she would sort of tilt her body to where the water would come up the side of her cheek as if the water is about to come over her mouth/nose. She did this to see if she would close her mouth in anticipation of the water coming and she did, so by the end of the week, she said she was ready to begin being submerged the following week — something I was a little nervous about but also very excited to see how she would do.
Week 4: Submersion week. Monday, she did AMAZING being submerged. To my surprise, as soon as the instructor lifted her up in the air before bringing her down into the water, she took a deep breath in and closed her mouth. She was much more calm in her float after submersion than she was when she was just floating. Prior to this she also really struggled being in the bathtub. I think because up until she was about 12 months, we would shower her in our sink — but she got too big for the sink, made the switch to the tub, and she would cry the whole time, especially when I would rinse the shampoo/conditioner out of her hair. Now, she doesn’t want to get out of the tub — and she has NO problem at all anymore with me washing the shampoo/conditioner out of her hair. By the end of this week, she was being submerged every session and by the end, she would burp SO loud and SO long—I had never heard an adult burp that loud before, let alone a child. I didn’t expect that at all, but it did make me and my daughter laugh. LOL! I will warn you that some of those burps did send some projectile vomit out—into the pool, into the instructors hand, and all over the instructors shirt and my daughter as well on several occasions. This is the reason they don’t want your kid to eat anything for a minimum of 2 hours prior to their session each day. Even though we would cut off food at the 2 hour mark, all the flips and taking in water + a gnarly burp probably just jostled her tummy around and she threw up what was remaining. Total vomits this week: 3.
Week 5: This week was pretty intense. This week she had to be able to float completely on her own for 1 minute—which she did and I was so proud of. She had still been crying, but it is FAR less than in the beginning. Her instructor would pretty much lift her in the air and lower her into the water where she would go in sort of like a pencil and she would have to come back up and float on her own. Half way through this week, her instructor informed me that she was going to flip her off the side of the pool where she would end up on her stomach and have to roll herself over and continue to float. THIS PART MADE ME CRY. Not because I was scared, but because this moment made me feel like this whole thing was WORTH IT. To see my daughter essentially fall backward into a pool facedown, roll herself over and float was such an emotional experience. It gave me immense peace that if she were to ever find herself in the water unattended, she could absolutely survive. Total vomits this week: 1
Week 6: The last & final week checklist: 1. must be able to float independently for 60 seconds, 2. must be able to float for 60 seconds, be flipped into the pool and fall into the pool from the edge, in summer clothes, a regular diaper, and shoes, 3. must be able to float for 60 seconds, be flipped into the pool and fall into the pool from the edge, in winter clothes (pants, long sleeve and a puffer jacket, a regular diaper, and shoes. She did phenomenal with every one of them. I was really shocked for the winter clothes one because the jacket was SO HEAVY once it was soaking wet. I couldn’t even lift her up to carry her because she weight at least 70 or 80 lbs. it felt like with the jacket on. Her instructor gave both my husband and I the option to get in the pool with her and our daughter to learn the techniques she uses to continue the skills on a weekly basis at home. We definitely did and it was great to learn how to help our daughter continuously in our own pool. *She did say it’s not mandatory or anything to do practice the skills with her at home, as she will never “forget” the skills she learned—it’s more so to help her continue to have the confidence with the skills. Total vomits this week: 1 (on the last day).
Final Thoughts: Is ISR Worth It?
In my opinion — yes. 100% yes.
But that doesn’t mean I didn’t wrestle with it.
There were so many moments I questioned everything.
“Am I doing the right thing?”
“Will she be traumatized by this?”
“What if she never trusts me again after being handed to a stranger who dunked her underwater or flipped her off the side of the pool?”
“What if our bond is never the same?”
I had all those thoughts because I’m a mom — a mom who loves her daughter more than anything and never wants to do anything that would harm her, cause her distress or anxiety or anything that might damage our relationship. It was absolutely heart-wrenching to hear her cry for me. But I stood nearby every single day and cheered her on, reminding her that she was doing an amazing job. And she was.
She got reward stickers at the end of each lesson (which she now loves more than anything, lol), and we’d celebrate with a Sonic Ocean Water Slushie at the end of each week. 🥤 As hard as it was, I watched her grow stronger, braver, and more confident with every session.
And surprisingly… our bond? It’s not weaker — it’s stronger.
Now that it’s over, I’m beyond grateful we did this. I had to remind myself daily that this wasn’t some form of intentional torture — quite the opposite. It was an act of protection. ISR gave my daughter the tools to survive if she were ever to fall into water alone. And that is why I chose it. That is what carried me through the doubt.
So if you’re a parent in the thick of ISR, or considering it and second-guessing every step — just know you’re not alone. It’s hard. It’s emotional. And it’s okay to question it. But from where I’m standing now, I’d choose it all over again.