Keri Morrison says her 6-month-old daughter was at a swimming class at the time the video was taken.
One mother is defending her decision to let her six-month-old daughter fend for herself after falling into a swimming pool.
Mom Keri Morrison came under fire for standing by as her daughter, Josie, was lured into the pool by a brightly colored sandal.
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"I really don't understand all the negative feedback we are receiving," she told IE. "To me, when I look at that video, I see nothing but amazing. Here is a six-month-old sitting on the steps, falls in, does exactly what she is supposed to do. She flipped over, her face is above the water and she is breathing."
Keri said she had her reasons for not jumping right in.
“I started Josie so early on the lesson because I lost my son, Jake, in a drowning accident,” she said.
Jake died during a thanksgiving family vacation in 2013 when he fell into the Intracoastal Waterway in Florida and drowned. He was two months shy of his third birthday.
"It eats me up inside knowing that he fell under the water not knowing what to do and I wasn't there to protect him and keep him safe," she admitted.
When Josie was born, Keri made a vow to teach the little one life-saving techniques at carefully supervised infant swimming classes.
“There was no question, as soon as she turned six months and one day, she started the program,” she said.
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In the video posted on Facebook on May 2, Josie fell into the pool and instinctively floated on her back -- keeping her nose and mouth above water.
For a minute-and-a-half, the adults watched as little Josie struggles to stay afloat before the infant was lifted out of the water by an instructor.
The American Academy Of Pediatrics says there is no evidence that formal swimming instruction can "prevent drowning in babies younger than one year of age."
But Keri is adamant that “Josie was not in any danger in that video.”
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