Waterbabies.... your experiences please?

[Monipop84]

I have completed the second month of Waterbabies with DD (10 weeks old). She seems to enjoy the classes and the warm water of the hydropool. I started Waterbabies as it seems a nice bonding activity to do with her, as she is still too young for other activities. However, the price per class is quite steep, and on top of that they are quite pushy to make us take a horrifically expensive "photoshoot" of the babies under the water.

1. Is Waterbabies worth it in your opinion and until when did you continue? I am worried that DD might not like a normal pool with colder water.

2. Is dunking the babies under the water useful for learning to swim later on?

3. Did you do the photoshoot, and what are your thoughts on this?

Waterbabies looks great but it’s just too expensive. £15 for 30 minutes in the pool! We can go to the same pool on a different day for a fiver and stay as long as we want and have more room.

I am worried that DD might not like a normal pool with colder water
They don’t have a special pool. They just hire a normal public pool. In any swimming baths the kids pool will be warm.

I took my son to a local independent swimming school from 4 months. He's now 3 and about to move up to the pre school class & I'm so glad we carried on with it.
We did a photo shoot although it wasn't as expensive as £150 and we got several photos. It was also done exactly how they went underwater in class.
Maybe have a look round to see if there are any independent classes near you? I've found it's also significantly cheaper than waterbabies and other franchises & it's the same lady that does all the classes and she's known my son since he was 4 months old.

We did the underwater photoshoot yesterday. DD never had a problem with the underwater swims and the lesson was paid for so I thought, "how bad can this be". Well, I am still a bit shaken by the experience. They were running late, so we had to wait 15 min at the side of the pool, which was way overcrowded with lots of partners and family members. As for the underwater swimming part, DD was submerged deeper and for a longer time, and as a result she got quite upset, especially the first time. It made me question why I am doing this if she doesn't enjoy it! I went to talk to the instructor after the lesson, pointing out DD's reaction to the dunking, and she dismissed the problem saying "maybe she was just tired from waiting around". Wow, so angry, and I feel like a terrible mother for putting DD through this :(

"1) Is Waterbabies worth it in your opinion and until when did you continue? I am worried that DD might not like a normal pool with colder water."

I've been babyswimming with my daughter from 3,5 months old and she never stopped attending classes until she was 7 - not babyswimming then anymore, of course ;) With my son I started at 7 months. He's almost 2 now and we still go.
I wouldn't need any classes with my son, because I became a swimming instructor myself when my daughter was 2,5 years old - 12 years ago - and worked as one for quite a while. I just think the group setting is nice. We also go to the pool apart from the lessons - usually we simply stay longer afterwards.
As for the pool with colder water: When they are small, the stabdard pools are simply too cold for them. Once they are older they are as fine in a colder pool as they would be without being used to a warmer pool - so it completely depends on the child. Just like being used to warm water in bath doesn't make them not like colder pools.

"2) Is dunking the babies under the water useful for learning to swim later on?"

Yes! You can't swim properly, if you aren't comfortable putting your head under water! It's also a safety issue. A child can't be safe in or near the water, if it's not used to being under water.

"2) Did you do the photoshoot, and what are your thoughts on this?" I wouldn't do a photo shoot I had to pay for. When my daughter was small, the teacher and sometimes other parents would occasionally bring simple underwater cameras with them, make pictures during the class and send them to us. In my son's classes, a preofessional photographer visits the class once or twice a term and makes photos during the normal class and everyone has the chance to make underwater photos as well. The parents pay the individual photos, if they want to have any. But also here some parents (me for instance) would just occasionally take private cameras with them and make photos. Of course it's not the same quality, but seriously, who cares?

I loved it and my child is nearly done with the chapters. She is water confident and is starting to try to swim independently. Our teacher is brilliant and we have had no hesitation signing our second baby up to classes.

But... I bloody hated the photshoot and left it feeling very upset. My (at the time) baby was under a lot longer than we’d been used to and was upset. My second child will not be doing the photo shoot.

@User8888888 - that was exactly my experience. I feel I should talk to someone about it - it's not right, I got very upset seeing DD looking stunned and whimpering. She wasn't even a bit upset - she looked traumatised! She never did that during the lessons. If Waterbabies are making children feel uncomfortable to make money out of the photoshoots, it's definitely not right.

My DS never liked getting dunked. He just doesn't like water on his face - like me! Consequently he began to hate waterbabies and refused to do the training, eventually becoming disruptive to the class so I decided not to waste my money any more.

Thanks to WB and their obsession with dunking him, he developed a fear of water that he had until age 6 and it also made him fully distrust us when we would carry him in the water. He would refuse to even get in a shower. Refused to go further than his knees in a pool or the sea. I continued to bring him to the local pool for gentle play and working on his trust issues. When we went on holiday in 2017 he was still the same aquaphobe he always was but the next year he was a little better. That year we brought him to a waterpark and he saw all the slides he couldn't go on due to his confidence. So he began swimming lessons on his return and absolutely thrived. He's now level 4 and looking forward to going back to go on all the water slides he was too afraid of last year.

Personally I think that their obsession with dunking babies fucked him up for about 4 years.

I did aquatots in my last area, they don't do it in my new one so we do waterbabies here. It is expensive but I would recommend it. In March, my dd had an accident where she fell into a pond, and she turned round and floated on her back and kicked her legs to keep herself up as she couldn't grab the side as she had been taught. I'd say it was a pretty good advert for teaching them what to do if they fall in!

@NewFoneWhoDis They forced the babies to be under water? That's certainly not okay! You've unfortunately been to a shit swimming school (or caught a shit teacher).

@SmartPlay, yes. I got told at every lesson to dunk him. We all did. And he would always get terribly upset afterwards, but I did what I was told against my better judgement. Then I was told I was doing it wrong, that if I did it right he wouldn't cry so the swimming instructor did it and he cried after she did it too. The last few lessons before I gave it up altogether I didn't do that part of the lesson. But it meant that from then on he didn't trust me in the pool - why would he?? So I had to work on his trusting me for years afterwards. We stopped going before he was 2 and it was only when he was about 6 that he began to trust me in the water again.

My eldest did Waterbabies for a few terms. Didn't do it at all with the youngest. Youngest is by far the most competent and confident in the water although they both really enjoy swimming.

I found the admin side of waterbabies an utter shambles - lessons cancelled, venues changed, and poor general comms. Our local manager was also very rude.

The photoshoot is extortionate. I really wouldn't bother.

My dd didn’t enjoy Waterbabies and we stopped after 1 term. We now do Puddleducks and love it. It’s more child-led, so face in water is optional and is introduced in a graded way, which I feel much more comfortable with. Of course it might just be because dd is now older that the whole thing is a more enjoyable experience.

@NewFoneWhoDis This sounds like a horrible teacher! It really pisses me off, when I read stuff like that. I had a collegue who did that shit too, even though she had been a swimming instructor for a while. Once we were on an advanced training together for a weekend, where it - again, because that's always done - had been emphasised that the babies/toddlers should never be dunked against their will. Right the following Monday she was back in the pool, happily dunking crying kids.