O.k so completely clueless: 10 week old swimming and saftey

[moomoo2013]

I cant wait to get DD in the local pool. I have my costume ready and she has too!

First question: Her swimming costume has a "built in nappy". Is that ok for poo/wee? or are there some kind of swim nappies I have to get too?

Second question: Arm Bands? Floatation device or nothing at all? Does she need any kind of flotation or extra safety or is me holding her enough?

Any responses will be very helpful

Cheers

I had DD in Huggies' Little Swimmers but without a built-in nappy in her costume, and armbands when she was tiny. Mainly for my own peace of mind as I was so nervous of her slipping out of my hands!

I just held mine at that age. The swim nappies/swimming costume with nappy built in is just to contain poo and will not absorb pee (as you will be in a big pool of water anyway!) so dont put it on her until you get to the pool. Put your own costume on under your clothes to make it faster to get changed.

I just held mine at that age, too. The big sit-in inflatables can be useful when they get bigger and arm bands are good for bigger babies, too.

One tip - take more towels than you think you need to keep her warm and wrapped up while you get dressed. Be prepared to feed as soon as you can when you get out. And consider speed of getting dressed /undressed for both of you.

Our local pool wouldn't let you in without a swin nappy and also a nappy cover on (happy nappy)

You don't need anything other then your own arms to hold her in

It's great fun, we've been going since our twins were 12 weeks old, they love it. But the first few times we only stayed in 20 minutes or so. My tip is to wrap/swaddle baby in a towel and lie on a changing mat while you dry and dress yourself - by the time you are dressed she will be 99% dry, and its so much easier to dress a baby if you aren't juggling your own towel

I always used a huggies little swimmers nappy under costumes

I've also never used anything other than me to hold when small and a woggle after around a year

HTH

We just hold our DD, I think she feels safer that way. Agree with minshu, at least 2 towels for baby. I always wrap DD up then quickly whip my cossie off and wrap myself in towel, then get DD dressed and in her car seat with a toy and dummy while I get dressed.

Out of curiosity, do you all find you need to feed on getting out? DD never seems to want a feed, just go to sleep.

We've rarely fed our DCs after getting out - we've probably been swimming about 40 times between 3 months old and 16 months old and I only remember 2 or 3 occasions when they needed a feed straight after getting out

My advice would be to hold your DD in the water and carry on doing this without relying on armbands or other flotation aids as she gets older.

if you put her in armbands or those little float-filled jackets/belts she will get used to feeling more buoyant than she really is. That will mean that when you take them off her to try to teach her to swim the sudden extra 'weight' will be a bit of a shock and the water will feel more scary.

I did the armbands and float-filled jacket with DD1 and she took ages to build up the confidence to learn to swim because she was convinced that she would sink without them. A friend told me not to use them for DD2 and she was right. DD2 wasn't scared of sinking and didn't panic about her face going in. Much less stressful.