Summer is here and soon children will be in the beach or the in the swimming pools. And some of these children have siblings who are younger than three years old whose parents are wondering if it is ok for them to be swimming.
The recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics is no swimming in young children under three years old. There is a new study to support this advice.
In a study done in Belgium of 341 children aged 10 to 13 years of age, among whom 43 had followed an infant swimming program, the researchers concluded: “Our data suggest that infant swimming practice in chlorinated indoor swimming pools is associated with airways changes that, along with other factors, seem to predispose children to the development of asthma and recurrent bronchitis.”
According to the researchers, the culprit might be trichloramine, the highly volative and reactive gas formed when chlorine reacts with organic matter brought by the swimmers. Because the infant’s lungs are young and developing, it is easily damaged by this by product of chlorine.
PEDIATRICS, June 2007, page1095 “Infant Swimming and Respiratory Health.”