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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think very small babies shouldn't be in a swimming pool?

52 replies

DrSeuss · 17/06/2015 10:15

As in, under a week? When the cord cannot have healed yet? Even wearing swim nappies and a neoprene nappy?
My own DS started swimming at a few months old but his cord was fully healed. Anything else seems a horrible infection risk to me.

OP posts:

ImSoCoolNow · 17/06/2015 10:48

They are too young to get any benefit from it anyway. Far better in a nice warm bath at home than a freezing, noisy swimming pool

Original poster

DrSeuss · 17/06/2015 10:48

The pool I took DS to was a hydro pool and very warm so the too cold thing never occurred to me. It was purely the infection risk which put me off and I am not usually a hygiene freak.

OP posts:

ImSoCoolNow · 17/06/2015 10:53

Tbh I think it's strange to want to take your baby to a swimming pool so early. And like pp said, mum wouldn't be able to go either due to lochia flow. Much better when they're a little older and can lift their head and enjoy the new surroundings. I'd imagine the noise of a pool and being away from mum would be more distressing than anything

sharonthewaspandthewineywall · 17/06/2015 10:54

They used to say don't take babies until they've had their jabs as polio was a live vaccine and small amounts could be excreted in urine.
I recently heard for the first time women who have had stitches after birth should beware of going swimming due to the infection risk of anything entering the wound site. Which would be the same as the umbilicus site surely

Ausflug · 17/06/2015 10:58

The cord should obviously be kept clean. But you can bath them and make sure you dry it carefully afterwards, can't you?

DD's had fallen off before we even left the hospital anyway, so maybe this baby was the same.

I would be more concerned about the water being warm enough, and the whole environment being a bit overstimulating for a tiny baby. The first time I took DD2 swimming, it was all getting a bit much for her after about 10 or 15 minutes, and I think she was about 6 weeks old then.

ifgrandmahadawilly · 17/06/2015 10:58

Yanbu.

I took my dd swimming when she was 5 weeks old

I couldn't wait to get out of the house and 'do' something with her. I thought it would be fun and relaxing. It was wasn't. She hated it and cried the whole time. I felt guilty, stupid and ten quid poorer. She got conjunctivitis the next day.

Lunastarfish · 17/06/2015 10:59

I'm pregnant and can't wait to take my DD swimming. That said, I was planning on waiting for lochia to stop first otherwise how is it possible (unless the dad takes her)?

MrsCookieMonster · 17/06/2015 11:02

Op, there is no reason not to take a child swimming before jabs and certainly no reason to wait a few months.

www.nhs.uk/chq/pages/1035.aspx?CategoryID=62&SubCategoryID=63

If the cord has fallen off then then nothing can get in there so not sure what you are talking about.
In summary YABU.

BelindaBear · 17/06/2015 11:03

I don't see that it benefits the baby in any way at that age. I waited til mine were 4 months old and more robust. All jabs were done, they actually enjoyed it and could regulate their body temp a bit better. If I'm brutally honest, I think it's ridiculous to subject a newborn to that.

drspouse · 17/06/2015 11:05

Waterbabies (the baby swimming company) say their youngest ever swimmer was 1 day old. It's been ages since they told you not to take them till they've had their 8 week jabs.

Ours went from very young (though we're talking 6-8 weeks for one and 3 months for the other)) but either in a warm hydro pool that's like a bath, or in a baby wetsuit.

Unless you fill your bath right to the top, they won't be going under (which is a key point in getting them used to the water) fully in the bath.

My DD is now 12 months and has been on 3 sets of Waterbabies lessons (other courses are available...) and can hold herself reliably on the bar at the side of the pool in a way that I'd consider safe till someone came and grabbed her. I don't think she'd do that if put in the water cold at this age, they've been practicing holding on with them since the second block of lessons i.e. for about 6 months (and they wait for a bit of water confidence before introducing that, so it probably takes about 6 months minimum from actually starting if you start a little bit older).

So I totally see the point of her swimming lessons and am very glad we did this with both of them. Baby swimming lessons do seem to have saved quite a few babies' and toddlers' lives.

As both our DCs are adopted I don't know about the mum going in issue, but can you take a bath 1 or 5 or 7 days after giving birth? If so, would it be different going in a pool?

MrsCookieMonster · 17/06/2015 11:06

And btw seeing as you have no problem judging other people, I think this is far more unhygenic and dangerous;

' i let my cat lick my child at three days as she was treating him like a kitten and I felt that was better than her being jealous but I still baulked at the swimming. '

Yokohamajojo · 17/06/2015 11:08

I took mine PFB at a couple of months for baby swimming and wish I had never done it, his BCG jab wound got horribly infected and he has a horrible scar...if no jabs or wounds fine at 3-4 months I think but not a week old, that seems far too early

ImSoCoolNow · 17/06/2015 11:10

Haha MrsCookieMonster what's riled you?

SayThisOnlyOnce · 17/06/2015 11:12

Maybe if you have your own private pool it might be ok. But pointless. Are you sure baby wasn't in a bath and parents lied got a bit carried away with the boasting?

DD was born in a pool, bit gutted I didn't have FB then to post a smug 'one minute old and swimming already!'

DrSpouse you can take a bath after giving birth but it gets a bit bloody - fine at home not so great at the local pool.

MrsCookieMonster · 17/06/2015 11:22

Cool, just can't see why anyone would care enough to slag someone off for taking their 1 week old child to the pool or think they are superior because they didn't. Everyone does things differently and I just can't see what harm was done. Maybe the mum was fed up and just wanted to get out of the house, maybe she thought it would be a special moment or whatever. Personally wouldn't be the first thing I would do but live and let live. Except of course when it comes to cats licking your baby which actually is dangerous, think where the cat has just licked before it licked your baby and if someone seriously thinks that is safer than a pool treated with chlorine the I would think their judgement is suspect and they are in no place to judge other people.
Rant over!

hibbledibble · 17/06/2015 11:38

In China they have a fashion to bathe newborn babies in these heated tubs with their heads held up by an inflatable pillow. It looks pretty odd but the babies loves it.

Doing at home does seem like a big risk though, if a parent nodded off while baby was blissfully sleeping in the water.

ImSoCoolNow · 17/06/2015 12:22

Haha Cookie I agree the cat licking thing is probably less hygienic than the pool. I watched my cat play with a live pigeon yesterday on the school run. I was mortified and pretended I didn't know who's cat it was to passers by.

MrsCookieMonster · 17/06/2015 13:03

Yes Cool I frequently do that with DD when she is acting up , just pretend I don't know her or DH.
On holiday the waitresses in the hotel said she was very determined which I think is portuguese for spoilt brat so I'm definitely in no position to judge anyone, cat or human!
She is of course just showing her dramatic tendencies early which I believe we should encourage and is my perfect pfb who can do no wrong.

Electroswing · 17/06/2015 13:35

The 'no bathing until the stump's dropped off' rule is an odd one.

My 'What To Expect: The First Year' says no bathing until stump's off.

My midwife, health visitor and the hospital staff said it was fine.

I went with the midwife.

CSIJanner · 17/06/2015 13:44

The Waterbabies 1 day old was with his father, a WB instructor in the derriford warm hydro pool which uses a salt based system instead of a chlorine one for water purity. Mum was on the side. The cord was covered by the happy nappy plus the salt water just helped the healing. You can take your baby from any age, either before or after jabs (my last one was before). Swings and roundabouts - it's what you and baby feel comfortable with.

WorldsBiggestGrotbag · 17/06/2015 13:55

None of them said 'definitely do not bath your baby', just advised that a newborn baby doesn't really need a bath and advised, in their opinion, that we should wait til the stump was off. Fine by us, she didn't need a bath so we weren't in any rush to do it! DD's was off in 5 days.

MixedMessages · 17/06/2015 13:58

I took DS swimming when a few days old. Private pool, warm - had a dip then straight into fluffy towel and warm room. Was nice.

AuntieStella · 17/06/2015 14:07

The 'rule' about jabs dates from when oral polio was still given, as it was shed in faeces. So there was a theoretic risk to a totally unimmunsed baby if they were in close proximity to another DC's poo (whether imperfectly contained in swim nappy, or anywhere else).

NHS switched to injectable (which doesn't shed) around 2004.

hibbledibble · 17/06/2015 14:27

mixed did you go in the pool? I don't see how that could be practical a few days after birth.

NobodyLivesHere · 17/06/2015 14:32

Yabu there is no reason not to as long as sessions are appropriate in length and the water is warm.

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