Brighton's Little Dippers celebrates 30 years of teaching babies how to love the water

The swim school has become a household name for new parents and is top of the list of activities to do with their newborn babies. Little Dippers’ was founded by long time Brighton resident, former model Lauren Heston.

Little Dippers is proud to be one of Brighton’s longest running female led company success stories and teaching local babies key life saving skills and a respect for water that they will have for life. Particularly important for those living by the sea, there are many stories of children who have saved themselves from drowning using the techniques that are taught.

This year the company is delighted to see some of the first babies’ who swam in the early years returning with their own children.

Lauren says: “I am so excited to be celebrating this milestone. When I was introduced baby swimming, I was fascinated by how easily the babies adapted to an underwater environment. It is incredible to think when I first started the company in 1993 the common belief in the UK at the time was that there was no benefit in taking children into the water until they were around four years of age. So a company teaching newborn babies water safety skills without any armbands or rubber rings was highly controversial. I am so glad that the methods of the little dippers’ baby swim programme have since been replicated all over the world.”

To celebrate this fantastic anniversary Little Dippers are running an open house on Saturday 3 June offering free family taster sessions with raffle prizes and goody bags. On Sunday 4 June they are doing a special photoshoot of dippers’ young and old, including parents who were dippers themselves and are now coming with their own babies.In September they will be running a Charity fundraising Splashathon in aid of the Rockinghorse Charity and a party for the many people who have been a part of little dippers’ and helped it to become the success it is.

Little Dippers offers local families a unique and special bonding experience, with classes taking place in the lovely private warm water baby swim centre at the swim centre in Upper Gardner Street in the north laine also expanding to classes in London and Surrey.

Lauren HestonLauren began her journey in 1989 when, in her former role as an underwater model she was involved in the filming of a television advert for British Gas which featured a baby swimming underwater in the coral filled reefs of the Red Sea. A very controversial image at the time, she observed how naturally the baby adapted to the water and decided to investigate this phenomenon.

This lead her to a study on the Russian premature baby techniques in aquatic environments and watching how newborn babies responded so naturally to the water. It was this that inspired her to develop her now highly respected Little Dippers baby swim school in 1993.

Lauren has worked alongside Professor Robert Winston and Desmond Morris on their groundbreaking science series “The Human Body” and “Baby It’s You”. She was also author of the sell out book “Waterbaby a first fun book of water skills” which was printed in 6 languages. She collaborated and was a consultant on water birth pioneer Michel Odent and photographer Jessica Johnson’s book “We are all waterbabies”. Lauren has also consulted on many tv and print advertising campaigns involving her Little Dippers babies.

She was an executive producer on the highly successful Little Dippers’ waterbabies film, a parents’ guide to teaching your baby water skills, which has been widely distributed throughout the world. You can also see her in a few 80’s iconic pop videos with Shakin’ Stevens and Duran Duran!