Baby swimming

[Jac1978]

Have booked swimming lessons for my five and a half month old and am feeling a bit nervous. It takes two of us to bath her because she wriggles so much and I'm afraid of dropping her when we are in the pool. Have also read mixed things about dunking and the dangers of them swallowing water. I am under pressure from DH's family to take her swimming so waiting til she's older isn't an option. Does anyone have any positive experiences of baby swimming? Looks like it could be fun if she takes to it and I get over my fears!

It is fun, promise. Babies like bobbing around in your arms. It's nothing like a bath at all. I would suggest you take her before you go to your class, just to get your head round it all.

The first time, go in for maximum 15 minutes, have a towel ready straight away and wrap her snug, feed her straight away afterwards in the changing cubicle. She will probably be completely content and sleepy afterwards.

I think the main benefit is it gives you confidence for holding them and playing with them in the water. Remember the teacher will have had loads of babies in the pool and be able to reassure you. They are also tougher than you think, even if you drop her she will bob under and then you'll pick her out again. Just hold her close and bob around - you'll be fine.

I'd second the advice to have a towel ready for afterwards as you can imagine how they react to the cold we all feel when wet after getting out of the pool! A good cuddle and a feed at first are much better than faffing around getting changed.

BTW my DS screamed his way through the first session, then got better and had ups and downs about swimming as a baby/toddler, but now has just turned 8 and is a complete fish!

My DD2 is 5mths old and goes weekly (has done for 7wks so far) and loves it, including the dunking! My PiL came to watch and were anxious to see here but they relaxed when they saw her giggling and kicking!
We have one baby that falls asleep every lesson - the water really relaxes her.
Try to do your best to enjoy it, I promise it's one of the best 'skills' to teach your baby and the pay off in the long run is enormous.

My DTs have been to swimming lessons since they were just over 3 months old (they're 8 months now) and they love it! DTS is incredibly wriggly too but he never tries to escape in the pool. Now changing him afterwards is a different matter....

We didn't do lessons, but ds went very regularly from a very young age and he has always loved it. He is nearly 3 and loves swimming a metre or so underwater. The best thing that happened was when someone passed on a bag of clothes with a little wetsuit. It has massively prolonged how long he can stay in the water. You can get adjustable ones too I think so you get a bit more use.

They give a bit more boyancy so aren't so good when actually learning to swim swim as will give a false sense of competance and the centre of gravity will be different, but in a pre swimmer they are great.

My DD reacted to baths from birth as if we were drowning her, but has been going to swimming lessons since she was 3 months and loves it! Even at the very first lesson she was completely calm, and after a few weeks she is able to do an underwater swim from the instructor to me independently, it's amazing!

I promise you, they're quite safe - it will really help if you are calm and confident as if they pick up on your anxiety they may get upset. I found it really helpful to remember that in our health and safety obsessed society they simply wouldn't do baby swim classes if there was any real risk.

And DD is now able to have a bath without screaming like a scalded cat, so that's another plus!

Thank you all very much xxx