Ms. Kong’s 8-month-old child in Tianjin developed a small pimple on her stomach after swimming, and was diagnosed with contagious molluscum. She went to the hospital every one or two weeks and was completely cured in more than three months.
With parent-child swimming becoming more and more popular with young parents, swimming like Ms. Kong’s children is infected with various diseases, and even babies are in danger of drowning. A survey by Xinhua Viewpoint reporter found that many parents-child swimming classes, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time, lack qualified coaches, and the health management of swimming pools is chaotic, and the safety of children is not guaranteed.
Parent-child swimming blooms everywhere, and a class costs hundreds to thousands of dollars.
A reporter from a water education early education hall in Guangzhou saw that there was a pool of about 8 square meters in the middle of the water education hall, and there were two small swimming pools next to it. There were swimming AIDS such as neck rings, pillows and underarm rings in the hall. According to the person in charge of the swimming pool, children aged 0 to 6 can come to swim.
Parent-child swimming pools like this are blooming everywhere in major cities. The reporter visited many parent-child swimming institutions in Chengdu and Guangzhou and learned that the general courses are divided into group classes and private classes. Group class is a class where a coach leads many parents and children together, and the general charge is above 300 yuan per hour; Private classes are one-on-one teaching, and the tuition is relatively more expensive, usually thousands of dollars an hour.
Swimming institutions offer a wide variety of courses. The Australian "WWSS" course shown to reporters by a staff member of a large parent-child swimming pool in Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, shows that through learning, the baby can strengthen the ability of primitive reflex, hand-eye coordination and learn body control and breathing control. "The goal is to let the baby really learn to swim and fall in love with swimming. Our youngest here came to class 15 days after birth. " The staff member said.
It is understood that the courses of most parent-child swimming institutions are packaged and sold. The reporter saw in the investment list of "Yourui International Parent-child Swimming" that, taking Beijing as an example, the average unit price per class hour is 350 yuan according to the membership standard, and the average annual class hour per student is 40 class hours. Some parent-child swimming institutions in Guangzhou start selling at least 58 class hours, which means that parents invest at least about 20 thousand yuan at a time, and there are 70 thousand yuan or 80 thousand yuan in expensive class bags.
Changing water in the swimming pool cannot be guaranteed, and auxiliary equipment can be used at will.
Many parent-child swimming pools have advertised slogans such as "Enhance the baby’s physique from the root", "Children who swim for a long time have high immunoglobulin index in their blood", "Parent-child swimming makes babies less sick" and "Swimming is the only independent exercise that can start from the age of 0", and some institutions have also publicized the concept of "implanting foreign parent-child swimming concept".
"Parent-child swimming is just a normal exercise. Children’s swimming can really promote development and growth to a certain extent, but it does not have those exaggerated effects. Babies under 1 year old are very weak and still in the initial development. It is not recommended to start swimming too early. " Zhu Hua, chief pediatrician of Chengdu Third People’s Hospital, said.
Zhou Weihang, a former national swimmer, told reporters that many parents believe in the propaganda of some organizations and hope to achieve some unrealistic results through swimming. In fact, the main purpose of parent-child swimming is not to teach children to swim, but to explore each other and establish deeper parent-child feelings during swimming.
Hygiene is the most concerned issue in parent-child swimming. Some parents reported that although many swimming pools promised to change water every day, they could not guarantee it and were not supervised. In a large parent-child swimming pool in Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, the staff said that it was disinfected and replenished with new water every day. When the reporter asked whether to change the water every day, the staff vaguely said that the whole pool is close to 100 square meters, and it will take a long time to change it all, unless there are really children urinating in it, the water will be changed temporarily. "Changing the water will affect the course arrangement, and it is very troublesome to send a notice temporarily."
In order to prevent children from urinating in the water, the swimming pool will require children to wear waterproof diapers. The reporter saw in a parent-child swimming pool in Guangzhou that a warning paper was posted by the pool: "Any child who urinates in the pool will be fined 360 yuan." There are three children about one year old swimming in the big pool, and none of them are wearing waterproof diapers.
There are also many bath towels in swimming pools that also have health hazards. Ms. Kong told the reporter that the child was looking for the cause of the illness after he got sick. The doctor said that the child might have been exposed to unclean bath towels. Infectious molluscum is mainly transmitted through direct contact, and many patients are infected in public bathrooms or swimming pools.
In addition, security risks can not be ignored. Some parent-child swimming pools are quite casual in the use of baby swimming AIDS. A staff member of a swimming pool in Guangzhou told reporters that there is no uniform standard for children to use auxiliary swimming equipment. Generally, they wear neck rings for less than 6 months, pads for more than 6 months, and underarm rings for more than 2 years old.
Zhou Weihang introduced that the neck ring is easy to cause certain damage to the child’s spine. The children’s bones did not harden six months ago, and it is easy to hurt the spine with the neck ring, which poses a safety hazard. In May last year, a July-old boy in Fuzhou drowned in a swimming pool wearing a sitting swimming ring. Fortunately, the child was not life-threatening after being sent to hospital.
"Some informal swimming pools have misunderstandings about parent-child swimming, and the methods are more radical. They want to teach in a few months, and the curriculum is unreasonable, which does not meet the physical development of small babies." The coach of a parent-child swimming pool in Chengdu said.
Emerging industries urgently need to establish health and safety standards.
The reporter learned that at present, the opening of the parent-child swimming pool only needs to register a business license, and there are no standards such as health inspection and personnel requirements, and there is no clear supervision.
Coach is an important guarantee for children’s safety. The reporter learned in the investigation that some parent-child swimming pools claim to learn from foreign countries in their coaching training methods, but many of them have no qualifications at all. "Some parent-child swimming pools have almost zero threshold for recruiting employees. Some are kindergarten aunts who are recruited to be coaches of parent-child swimming. How to ensure the safety of children?" An industry insider in Chengdu said.
Shen Yong, head coach of a parent-child swimming pool in Guangzhou, said that there is no uniform standard for parent-child swimming pools in China at present, and it depends entirely on industry self-discipline. "For coach specifications, each swimming pool generally sets its own standards." Some standardized swimming pools require coaches to obtain lifeguard certificates and swimming social sports instructor certificates, and at the same time, they must be trained as parent-child swimming teachers for infants before they can take up their posts.
Chen Yunde, director of the Complaints and Consultation Department of Sichuan Consumer Protection Committee, said that parent-child swimming is a new industry, and it is urgent to formulate clear standards in sanitation and disinfection, personnel qualifications and safety management to ensure the safety of infants and young children. People in the industry call for speeding up the guidance and establishment of industry self-discipline standards, such as coach training mode and the threshold for recruiting students, so as to make this emerging industry develop healthily and orderly.
Zhu Hua and other experts said that parents should treat parent-child swimming correctly, and focus on parent-child interaction, instead of seeking to let babies learn swimming skills quickly.
(According to Xinhua News Agency, Chengdu, April 4 th)
