Swimming pool dilemma....

[Neney1]

We're wanting to take our 6 month old DS swimming regularly but we have a dilemma..

Do we
a) take him to local council pool which is nice and warm, with family changing rooms and not too dirty if we go first thing in the morn BUT costs nearly £7 everytime we go, and is about 5 miles away
Or...
b) Go to our private gym and use that pool which is nice and quiet, nothing extra to pay, 1/2 mile away and nice and clean, BUT IMO, a bit too cold for tiny babies?

My instincts would be to save money and buy something to keep DS warm in the water at our gym. Do baby wetsuits exist? Or is this ridiculous and should I just pay out?

Baby wetsuits definitely do exist - I did waterbabies with ds (highly recommend - ds can swim about 3m completely on his own, no additional aids, not yet 3) and could have borrowed a wetsuit for cooler pools - and also available to buy. You'd soon recoup the cost of the wetsuit and probably appreciate the condition of the changing rooms...

Yes, it's a sort of wrap-around fixed with velcro. Leves the arms and legs bare, but is effective. We used one for our ds2. I'll see if I can find you a link.

DC will only survive for a couple of mins at a colder pool!

You can get baby wetsuits in Mothercare or most sports shops sell them as well.

Here it is.

The little suits you get for babies are designed to keep the sun off not to keep them warm.

Warm pool might be best for a while.

You can find baby wetsuits pretty cheaply on ebay. My DDs have poor circulation so have had longie or shortie wetsuits from a very young age. I found these far better than the vest ones for my two but then they needed the extra warmth.

I'd try the cooler pool and see how you get on - you'll soon know if he is getting too cold. You can always use the wetsuit in the warm pool too - sure your DS won't mind one bit and you'll likely get your money back in that you'll get to spend longer in the pool as he will be warmer for longer. Swimming really tires them out so they get cold quite quickly.

Take a snack for afterwards or leave time for a BF - makes them very hungry too.

pinkbubble, this is what I am worried about... the wetsuits do look good, but do you think they'll actually make a difference? He loves the water so don't want to restrict his time too much... I'd be looking at about 15 mins?

Scramble is thinking of the UV protection suits - proper wetsuits and vest wetsuits do exist as prettycandles' link shows.

The wetsuits do make a difference.

shortie wetsuit on ebay in 6-12m is easy to put on and take off and dries quickly if you hang it on a hanger over the bath

They do make a big difference - I can't take my DDs in the pool without one or they are very quickly in pain from the cold.

I think a fair few people do get the UV protection suits mixed up with the proper neoprene equivalent though.

Ooh, perfect pretty candles, but not in the right size sadly, so will take the advice of BBM and hot foot it to ebay... bargains galore!! Thanks for all your advice!

Neney - you have to do a bit of a search in the shops on ebay to get the right size. I'm lucky - one the cornish coast you can just pick them up as easily as you can a daily paper .

The link I gave you should fit - I'd go for the one with sleeves if you can - works better IME.

ours is like this

I bought my dd a proper wetsuit when she was 3 from a sports shop. JJB sports maybe?

I was surprised that they did them so small - she loved it. Kept her warm on many a Suffolk beach when all the other children were shivering in convential swimsuits .

Sorry I know the proper wetsuits do the job, just a lot of people refer to the UV suits as wetsuits. I got myDD a shortie suit for £3 at a bootfair, she is such a surf chick with it on. they wear them when down at the beach to keep them warm when the are building sandcastles and dams in our lovely scottish weather.