Baby swimming help!

[roamingwest]

DD is just 4 months, I haven't done Waterbabies etc with her but DH and I took her swimming a couple of weeks ago to a hotel pool and she seemed to enjoy it - she kept nice and cosy in her wetsuit and had fun splashing.

I took her to a local mums and babies swim session this morning and she totally freaked out! She was ok for a few minutes, then went rigid, started crying in the pool, and continued to cry and got really really distressed and screamy while we got dry and changed. It was really upsetting (for both of us and all the other mums and babies looking on in horror!).

We're going on holidays next week and I was looking forward to swimming every day; does anyone have any tips on how to make it easier for her? Or why this happened?

Sometimes babies just do take exception to swimming and it's hard to work out why. I wouldn't take this isolated incident as a sign she won't like it in the future though. She may well have not been feeling 100%, maybe had some painful trapped wind, any number of reasons.

I would use your holiday as a chance to give her lots of opportunities to swim with no pressure. Nice and relaxed, keep her in whilst she's enjoying it by no need to get through a class.

Some babies just don't like the water much. My eldest was never particularly keen and can't get enough of swimming now he's 5.

One thing I've read is that babies may panic if you put them in the water on their back but are fine if on their tummies or upright. It is true in my experience (with DD1 and DD2).