What to wear swimming?

[ENSMUM]

We're planning to take our 4 month old DD swimming soon. We have a (reusable) swim nappy. Does she need to wear anything else with it?

Personally I would use the disposable swim nappies at that age, they tend to be a bit more snuggly if baby does a poo, which is likey at that age. You don't need to where anything else unless you want, I put a swimming costume over my DD's but only because I think it looks sweet. Quite often on holiday they just where the nappy.

i think that is fine, though when we took our LO we also used a swimsuit as we didn't want him to show too much flesh.

Sorry, "wear" not "where"!

I'm not 100% sure what type of nappy you mean by 'reusable swim nappy'. Is it designed to be used alone or with a disposable nappy underneath? By the sounds of things, I think perhaps you are not too sure yourself.

I use a disposable swim nappy, and then outer swimming shorts. Some parents just use the disposable nappies but these could leak which would be a rather embarrassing situation. My sister recommended Splash About Happy Nappy to go on top which seal quite well around the waist and legs and are apparently good at preventing leaks - she said it was one of the few makes accepted at WaterBabies classes.

What make is your reusable swim nappy? I think you need to find out a bit more from the company about how it's designed to be used.

I'd recommend a swimsuit purely for giving your DD a wee bit of insulation. Young babies can get cold quickly- depending on how chubby she is, and a chilly baby is a grumpy baby! So don't stay too long in the pool unless it's a nice warm baby pool. HTH

Check with the pool. My local, council run one is not fussed at all but my friend takes her baby to a private gym and they insist on disposable plus something else on top...I think one of those Splash About Happ Nappies that ceebie mentionned.

I always used reusable ones on DS, either ones from Mothercare, or Zoggs ones. They are designed to be used by themselves.

Just remember, there is no swim nappy designed to hold wee! So put it on at the last moment...

I use a "happy nappy" swim nappy with a "little swimmers" disposible swim nappy underneath. this works well. i wouldn't be confident using the reusable nappy on its own. have fun! swimming with your baby is such a wonderful bonding experience!

I used to use a Mothercare/Aquanappy reusable, without a disposable swim nappy at our local pool. And a tiny wee wetsuit when he was very tiny.

PS in terms of warmth, I add a bodywarmer thing in our public pool because it's quite cold, but I don't for swim lessons because the pool is really warm - instead i put a swimsuit over the Splash About Happy Nappy just because it's really cute! (well, it does look slightly silly WITH the happy nappy but still...). You could phone the pool to find out about water temperature.

Thanks for all your advice. The nappy I have is def designed to be used standalone as a nappy ceebie (it's a bambino mio one) - I wasn't sure whether DD should also wear a swim costume. I am not sure whether it's only because if she's a girl I am even pondering this - perhaps if she was a boy I wouldn't be giving it a 2nd thought as the nappy would be like trunks anyway (although obviously at 4 months she doesn't need to cover her flesh for modesty!)