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?

I have been doing water babies classes since he was a couple of weeks old and he is nearly 11 months now. I like the classes but agree they are very expensive. The skills they teach them, particularly the live saving skills such as holding on to the edge of the pool etc are really great and things you can continue in your own time. The pool we go to is lovely and warm and the teacher is very good and understanding. My boy has never ever liked going under the water. He used to cry hysterically all the time so I stopped doing it altogether at the teacher's advice. Only recently started again and I never ever felt pressured to do it. The photo shoot we never did for obvious reasons and again I wasn't pressured to do it. I hope that helps. They are lovely classes but I agree they are expensive.

I took DD from 10 weeks and I wish I hadn’t wasted my money. I now take her to the local pool and she gets just as much out of going there. I didn’t bother with the expensive photo shoot.

I took my eldest but not my youngest. They're both confident in the pool, putting their faces in, etc. They're not 1.5 and 2.5 so still young. I loved water babies with my eldest but haven't missed it with my youngest so I guess just stick with it if you enjoy it

DS is 3, we've been doing water babies since he was 4 months old. He loves it, always has, is completely comfortable and unfazed by it, loves going under the water.

I'm so pleased we've carried on, he enjoys it, has taught him some excellent skills and is now jumping in and swimming half a width of the pool to me unaided.

It is expensive, I'd be put off if he didn't enjoy it as much and our teacher is lovely ( had the same one from the start) and met some nice mum friends. So we've had a very positive experience.

Never done a photo shoot, no one bothers me about it.

I started water babies when ds was 4 weeks old he's now 5 months and it's literally his favourite time of the week. He splashes and laughs and loves his instructor. I seriously love going and would recommend it to anyone.

Going underwater nurtures their reflexes and gets them used to it, so when they come to learn to do it themselves the whole going under but isn't scary

The photo shoot is £150 for one photo. Not worth it. And those from our group that went said it was badly organised and they did the underwater bit differently to how they did it in class so the baby was daunted.

Thank you everyone, super useful info. I guess I will stick with it for a couple of terms, and then perhaps move to a normal pool when DD is older.

@sirmione16 re. photoshoot: I can't believe they would purposefully do something that is bad for the babies, this is shocking!

I did it with one child and not the other. No difference in their ability to swim. If anything the one I did take was slightly too confident in water as a toddler.

It is a fun activity, but not worth the cost. Look at local leisure centre ones you pay per class so not paying if baby is ill etc.

Honestly, I hated it as did my dd. It wasn’t great for her eczema and I thought it was a waste of money (it’s very expensive, no we didn’t even entertain the idea of doing the photoshoot).

She’s 6 now and has never had any other formal lessons (we did 6 months of water babies before we quit). She can swim well enough and I actually think teaching her ourselves has been a lot less stressful.

Didn’t ever do the photo shoot. Did it with DD from 4 months old to 2.5 (they moved the class to a different day that we couldn’t make because of work).

Looking back, I’m glad I did it, but i think the best way to get your money’s worth is to use it to give you ideas, but you really need to go swimming between sessions if you want your toddler to be really confident.

I really loved getting them to jump of the edge etc, that was a big confidence builder for my DD

I looked into joining the wafer babies sessions when my son was about 4months, they did seem expensive, but I mainly give it a miss as I was advised you were pushed to dunk your babies (not sure if that's true or not )

So instead I just took him to my gym. Where they do ducklings classes, they have inflatables and some water toys and he has loved it. The lifeguard there was marvellous, and really helped bring my son on in confidence, so if you are maybe looking for a change, you could see what they have locally.

I was terrified of swimming lessons as a child and didn't learn to swim until I was quite a bit older than my peers as a result.

It was important for me to introduce DS to swimming when he was tiny. He adored his lessons (and slept well afterwards which was refreshing to me). However, our local Water Babies franchise was terrible - customer service was poor, lessons were frequently cancelled and refunds for these missed lessons weren't forthcoming. We switched to another swimming company which was so much better and much cheaper.

DS now has lessons at the local pool. They are super cheap and very good indeed. If I had my time again I'd go straight for lessons at the local leisure centre. £4 a lesson and no hard sell for other stuff.

We did them and thought they were great but qe also took her once a week to a normal swimming pool.

No we didn't do underwater photoshoot, my dd has always closed her eyes under water so no point. They were never pushy with us!

@Monipop84 it wasn't bad for the baby, you've misunderstood. We do "name, are you ready? Go" before we place the baby under the water in the lessons, and apparently at the shoot the instructor didn't do that so the baby was unprepared. The baby was absolutely fine safety wise

They don't push you to go under at all. My instructor always has said it's our choice. When my baby started crying once she asked me if I wanted to do the swim or not, sometimes I did sometimes I went and bounced him in a corner

Waterbabies still do submersions and under water shoots but the latest advice in child development and baby swimming is not to submerge or do underwater photoshoots. Lots of the other baby swimming experts have moved away from this now due to the current research around putting young babies under water.

www.birthlight.com/news/baby-swim-photoshoots

First child did water babies 2 terms from 12 weeks onwards and we got a pic underwater.

Second child i just took to an ordinary (cooler) pool and copied the water babies model.

Now 3 and 5 both can swim and live to jump in off diving board. Both love the water!

Is there a puddleducks class near to you? They also do warm water pools but no oho photoshoot. Might also be cheaper, I don't know.

I did one term of puddleducks when my daughter was about 5 months then used to take her to the local pool for a mum and baby session. Did waterbabies from age 1 to 3 when we moved areas. Did do the photoshoot was fine they don't make the babies do anything they don't want to. Wish I had said no as just had gone to work and spent alot of money to get my car through its MOT so was skint and photos were expensive. Lessons were good and my 5 year old loves the water.

I did water babies with ds1 but non of his siblings.
Didn't do the photo shoot although I was tempted
We asked grandparents etc to put money towards lessons for birthday /Christmas - they had asked what he would like before anyone mentions we were being cheeky fuckers and demanding money!

With dd we found a local pool which was a warm temperature and did their lessons which led into toddler lessons without parents but followed the same format. No underwater dunking but blowing bubbles, faces in etc encouraged
Both swim equally well. If you enjoy it and can afford it there's nothing wrong with going but if your money is better elsewhere and neither of you are enjoying it then don't feel pressure to go

Our 22 month old is now on chapter 6. We didn't do the photo shoot and we're not pushed into at all.
We were thinking about stopping at the end of chapter 5 due to the expense but then when he started jumping in off a big float and going underwater on his own to pop up and shout again we thought this is worth every penny!

We did 2 terms and did the photo shoot top started when DS was about 7 weeks old. Guessing it's franchise dependant, but ours was great, the teachers were lovely, the pool was fab, and the photo shoot really well organised. Ours did the same for lessons, mostly anyway. They did 3 underwater dives, and tried to correct the babies, ie, if they turn to one side the staff try and project them to counter it to get s good photo. We did buy one, must have been crazy as it was £75 for one, but it is a great photo. We stopped once DS was old enough for council lessons. They are nowhere near as good, but £4.40 compared to £17?? We just can't justify the cost anymore. If we have another bsby we'll take them as DS absolutely loved it and the toasty warm pool is lovely!

We did Waterbabjes with DS1 from about 5 months. It was a lovely bonding thing for him and DH, and we did a weekend class which one of my mum friends also did with her DS, so it was nice socially too.

We did the photo shoot and bought the cheapest photo option (still £80 odd!) but I have to say the photo is amazing. It's actually stunning, rivals the Nirvana cover. They really are lovely photos! So much that we're signing DS2 up for one term purely for the photo shoot and photo!

Long term I don't think it's worth it for the swimming skills element. We stopped when DS1 was 13 months as once I went back to work and he started nursery, he was constantly ill and we ended up missing loads of sessions. I do have one friend whose DS still goes now at 3.6 and he can't actually swim.

Oh, and Ds is fine in the cooler water now he's a bit bigger.

Top tip, but the happy nappy on eBay, we got 4 different sizes of shorts and 2 of the neoprene tops for £20, buying brand new would be been 3 times that. And they were in great condition too as they aren't in them long at all, DS was already in the XL at 9 months!

First child did water babies for two terms from 11 weeks. Then lessons in local council fun pool from 3.
Second child I didn’t bother and she started lessons in the council pool at 3. Both children now good swimmers. Lack of waterbabies hasn’t hindered the second!
I used to hate it to be honest. Babies all seemed pretty nonchalant about the swimming and they were all crying in the cold changing room after, no time for you to shower / do hair etc.

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 started it with DS at 12 weeks. We stopped at 15 months, he had awful water wobbles and cried through every lesson from the age of about 1. I don’t think it’s worth it unless it’s for you not baby.

2. Is dunking the babies under the water useful for learning to swim later on?
   Not really

3. Did you do the photoshoot, and what are your thoughts on this?
   Yes, it’s a good photo, taken before the water wobbles. Nirvana baby style.

DS stopped waterbabies age 15 months and then started proper swimming lessons age 3. He’s now 7 and a good swimmer, working on his stroke technique. He loves the water. I don’t credit waterbabies with this but at least it didn’t put him off.