Baby swimming - any recommendations for SW London?

[florenceuk]

Has anybody taken their baby (under 6mths) on swimming lessons? Any recommendations for particular courses?

Latchmere road leisure centre (near Battersea Park) does swimming courses for babies a couple of mornings a week, or at least it did a year ago. Can't remember the name of them. They were pretty good, and had follow on courses by the same teachers or older babies and toddlers to so you got continuity and progression. About £3 a go I remember. Hope this helps.

They also have parent and baby swimming at Clapham Manor pool. Baby must have completed all 3 sets of preliminary jabs (i.e. the ones supposed to be completed by 16 weeks) to take part. Cost £35 for a seven week course. The course was fine. We took our ds at just around the 4m mark. Have to say he didn't seem to really enjoy it until towards the end. This is what I've heard from other parents - 5/6m is maybe a better age to start.

Cue all the messages from mums of babies who LOVED swimming way before 5m!!

Anyway, HTH.

There are a number of groups operating in London. Aquababies, Aquatots, Little Dolphins. We started taking our ds at 11 weeks old and he was been a "water baby" ever since. If you are an NCT member, these groups often advertise in your local magazine or they maybe listed at leisure centres or libraries.
Just to warn you, most classes do take the babies under water. As far as I can tell the babies don't mind at all but it is a bit of a shock for most parents!

Any baby swimming classes in Se England, Kent area - Maidstone in particular??????

Any recommendations for baby swimming and/or yoga classes in central/north London?

whereabouts in north London? we went to Park Road, Crouch End - the pool was v nice & warm, good changing too but the teachers were variable.

we're between maida vale and queens park but all local pools (swiss cottage and queens park) are apparently closed for refurbishment, and the classes in south london seemed a bit of a trek. Would you recommend the crouch end classes?

Have you tried Kensington New Pools- has good soft play, incidentally- or the Porchester? Pretty sure that the Porchester hosts something along those lines.

Hey, nice name, btw!

thanks for advice - which is the one in kensington? love your name btw - really more apt. not sure i live up to mine at present...

I would recommend Crouch End - but it's always very heavily booked & you need to check the class times because they can clash with naps/lunch unless you don't mind your baby sleeping in the car, as they get v tired after their swim. the pool is so warm it's like a bath and has steps for toddlers to play on. the changing facilities are just as good in the men's bit too, as dh has taken her there.

I looked at this thread and first thought "has Scummy had a baby all of a sudden?! Blimey, she kept that quiet Can't help with your question scRummymummy but welcome to mumsnet.