Water confidence jackets vs armbands or doubly safe with both!

[fizzylemonade]

I have a very clingy almost 4 year old son, he has armbands but has no confidence in water. He will let go of me with one hand but literally marks me with the tight grip of the other hand
He has never had any bad experience in the water and I have never lied to him about not letting go of him and then doing it. He will however, hold onto the side of the pool with both hands and walk up the wall of the pool to bring his knees up under his chin
Would a water confidence jacket help? He has the roll on armbands which seem to give him more boyancy. Should I keep these/ditch them/get water confidence jacket help me please

We used a foam tube/woggle/sausage alongside armbands for dd and she soon ditched the armbands and just went for the woggle unless it was very deep. The problem with armbandds is they can restrict arm movement where as usign the woggle under their arms gives them buoyancy and freedom to kick and scrabble arms.imho water jackets gives a false position in the water but you cna remove some floats to adjust this as they beocme mroe confident. Have you tried any lessosn - he may repsond better to someone else and with a small group of similar aged and ability kids. At 5 dd is now just about swimming