Oh really?

You know me, I love a good – really useless – piece of research that anyone with a brain cell could have deduced in a nanosecond. In this case, you will be astounded to learn that if you give very young children swimming lessons it will apparently not increase their risk of drowning. I would have thought it would actually be helpful, but truly I could not make this up, and am indebted to the researchers at the National Institutes of Health in the USA for this truly revelatory information.

The research came about because apparently health professionals in the US are concerned that giving swimming lessons to children under 4 might indirectly increase drowning risk by making parents and caregivers less vigilant when the kids are in the water. While acknowledging that even good swimmers can drown, they want to reassure parents that teaching kids to swim won’t increase their risk.

So glad to have cleared that up for you, and if you know of any research grants available for studying the effects on blood pressure of lying on a couch reading Georgette Heyer novels do let me know, I could make medical history.