What age did you take baby to swim/groups etc

[SunMoonRainShine]

I have an 8 week old baby. I've been looking at the local baby groups and activities and just wondered when's the right time to take baby to groups like baby sensory, or swimming, or any others at the local children's centre.

Anyone have any advice/experience to share? Is it worth taking her yet, and if not, when?

We started a couple of classes at about 9-10 weeks old. Playgroup at 8mo when he started crawling.

We've largely avoided swimming - I didn't fancy shoving my post-partum stomach into a cossie in the early months after birth and all the classes seemed very expensive. Every time we've been to the pool it's been more hassle than any enjoyment gained. I'd rather stick to dry land for the time being.

We did baby massage at 3 months. I took him swimming myself weekly from about 18 weeks (didn't bother with classes) and we did a singing/nursery rhyme class from maybe 8 weeks. We still do the song class and swim and he's 9m.

We also did local drop in mum and baby groups from about 4-5m.

8 weeks swimming and groups from 6 weeks onwards, maybe for me more than baby as sitting home. Drive me mad

We're going to our first baby class (a mix of baby message/sensory stuff/god knows) this week; DS will be 5 weeks. I think we'll do swimming classes in the new year when we're a bit more settled in a routine; he'll be about 4 months then.

We started swimming lessons at 5 months but honestly found it a lot of hassle going there solo for only 30 mins, plus didn't think there was anything we couldn't just do ourselves. We did a few lessons but we sacked it off.

Now we go at weekends when we can all go together. We can change together in family changing rooms and I can actually do some swimming myself while DP plays with DD. And it costs less for all of us to go than it did for a lesson.

We do loads of other classes so I don't feel too bad about not getting on with swimming! We will probably go back when she's older.

We started classes from about 6/7 weeks but they're really for you at that stage. It's only now DD is over 6mo that she's starting to get something out of them and enjoy the activities.

I started at 7 weeks, baby massage, sensory, swimming and a parents discussion group too. I needed structure to my days, we also went to the free bookbug sessions at various libraries. I had a fairly high needs baby and ran out of things to do at home very quickly!

Our first class was a free baby massage class at 8 weeks old - they're best done when your baby is young and immobile to get the most out of them! Baby yoga is also best done when they're young too.

Baby sensory I started when he was 4 months old, but there are lots of people there with newborns. Swimming lessons were again 4 months, we both love them.

Basically, the answer is when you think you're ready for them! Free/cheap ones at the children's centre are definitely worth a try.

I started taking her to the baby group every week from being 9 weeks old, that was just for under 1s. And DH took her to baby swimming once a week from being 12 weeks old. I started taking her to more playgroups that had older ones at them from being around 5 months old. I was only on ML til she was 9 months unfortunately so we didn't get to go to tons. A good idea for the early months as well is cinema if you have anywhere near you that does cinema screenings that you can take under 1s to, I took DD to that quite a few times whilst on ML, meant I go to see a bunch of films that I wouldn't have otherwise. I wish I had gone more when she was tiny as it was much easier when she was like 5mo and younger than when she was older as she would still sleep and feed through some of it and didn't need solid food or much entertaining. We also used to do lots of walking in the early months - get out now before the weather gets too bad! Altho tbh I did A LOT of walking in the freezing cold last winter on ML as DD only had short naps in the pram, used to walk to the park and walk around and end up sitting on a bench in the freezing cold for 30 minutes til she woke up and then walk home. There is now a cafe in that park so I'm fuming it wasn't there last winter, at least I could have sat there and got a hot drink...

5 months. We tried once ro twice before that, but DS did not enjoy it before 5 months, which meant I really did not enjoy it. :) At 5 months, he tolerated it. At 6 months, he suddenly started loving it. :) I wished I'd known that and had been able to relax more into following his lead.

A couple of months, but both times she ended up with ear infections so just be careful with those