When can a baby start wearing armbands for swimming?

[Mo2]

A fantastic new sports centre with 25m and toddler pool has just opened near us. I went to check it out on my own last week and was disappointed to see a huge notice which said, "Due to health and safety reasons, baby swim seats are not allowed to be used in the pools".
We often take our 2 swimming, but Ds1 (3.9) is still in armbands and needs some supervision, and DS2 (12 months) has been happy to stay close by in his swimseat. Clearly this will not be an option in this pool.
Is 12 months too young for armbands?

I'm not sure why they've instigated this rule - it's not as if people 'launch' their babies and then leave them!

I'm not sure when they are old enough to use arm bands, but have you thought about the swim vest things? They are expensive (about £25), but ds found it much easier to flaot with his vest than with armbands. As the children get older and more confident in the wather you can gradually remove the floats from the vest until they can swim.

They are a great idea hmb, I've never tried them but have seen them.

we used armbands this year for ds (19 months) - but found them not quite enough to keep him fully buoyant - also used a rubber ring with them which worked quite well. The vest is probably the best option together with armbands.

kooshies (php catalogue) sell baby armbands- our 19 month old uses them. He still needs an extra hand though. Our older son has the swim vest thing- they're very good.

This site havew Pollyotter floatsuits for £19.99 for 1-2yrs, that's the cheapest I've seen them.

Just checked the PHP site and they have the vests on sale for £12.95!

Curses! I always end up paying full price for things

m & s have got swim jackets in the sale. my mum got ours, but i think she paid about 9 quid.

Am pleased to say that my DSs (4.5 & 2.5) use neither

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Ds has used armbands since 4 months old - obviously to start with I held on to him, but by about 6 months he was off on his own, and is now very confident in the water. It takes them a little time to learn to hold their heads out of the water but they do learn really quickly!

PHP are here

Vote for swim vests, they don't make the arms stick out at right angles to body!

I tried the PolyOtter suit but it was such a struggle getting ds in it and he really didn't like it that I gave up. Gave him armbands for the first time last time we went (age 20 months) and he took to them like a duck to water. Not quite fully floating but can do it for a little while, and happily paddles around while I hold his hands. Interested to know why you don't like them soupdragon?

The don't hold the child in the correct position for swimming at all. The suits that are bouyant round the body are better. Also, the swimming class I go to don't recommend anything as apart from the positioning aspect, it gives the child a false sense of security (not so sure about this reasoning). I find holding them is fine.

Anyway, DS1 learnt to swim with nothing at 3 1/2 and DS2 (2.5) can swim underwater but can't quite manage to come up for air! They're like little fish.

ds1 did the baby swimming under water thing. he loved it- loads of cool photos pf him underwater as a baby as well. Then he got very fussy about vchanging rooms and refused to go swimming for over a year. We've just eased him back in. We've found the jacket useful as he doesn't really kick very well and it just provides extra bouyancy. Last week he swam without holding onto me for the first time (yeah) - round and round like a helicopter blade. Interestingly he must "remember" the baby swimming (or at least its become reflex) as he always automatocally holds his breath when he goes under.

I prefer the jackets to armbands. DS2 has just started swimming but isn't good underwater (well he doesn;t hold his breath or anything).

I;d recommend learning bottom up rather than top down iyswim.

Another vote for the floatsuits here. My ds wore one until recently (he's 4 now). We bought his from the local swimming pool.

Dd1 and 2 used a Polyotter with no problems, but ds1 nearly drowned using his. He was in a pool at the very shallow end, and slipped over, landing face down in the water. Because the water was so shallow, the suit was unable to right him, and he was unable to get his footing to push himself up. He was face down in the water really struggling until dh noticed he had gone very quiet, and saw what had happened. Really scared the pair of them.

DD (4.5) has never really liked water but on holiday last week she suddenly took to her armbands and started swimming with them on. I was so happy.
Took DS (16 months) swimming this week and tried him with armbands but he couldn't keep his head up! So I put him in his swimseat but he hated being so restricted so he screamed till I let him get out! I think the swimjackets are a great idea, I am thinking of buying one soon.