Infant aquatics programme teaches toddlers how to survive in water

Ada Yip Kwok-mei was relaxing over breakfast while holidaying at a seaside villa a year ago when she looked away from her 16-month-old daughter for a moment. That was all it took for the toddler to wriggle out of her highchair and head for the pool.

"My daughter was confident in the water - she just thought water was fun," Yip says. "Although I caught her before she made it in, the experience made me realise she didn't have the skills to survive in the water."

Concerned, she searched for a way to teach her daughter to survive in the water and discovered the Infant Aquatics Survival (IAS) self-rescue technique. It was not available in Asia, but an undeterred Yip was soon on a plane to the US to train her daughter, and learn to become an instructor herself.

Yip, who used to work in her family's garment manufacturing business, is now a certified Infant Aquatics Survival instructor - one of only two in Asia.

She believes it is important to promote water survival skills because drowning ranked the third highest cause of unintentional death in children and youths by the World Health Organisation.

Babies have a natural reflex to hold their breath under water, but lose this after six months and need to be taught, Yip says.