Tips for taking baby swimming

[Bunny2021]

We’ve got our first swim lesson tomorrow and I’m really nervous.

DS is 6 months and has only just started to tolerate bathtime.

What tips does anyone have for surviving swimming - particularly the getting out/dressed afterwards. DS hates getting cold after baths so I’m scared he’s going to be cold and have an epic meltdown…

When you're in the pool, if baby starts to get upset, don't be afraid to step away from the class slightly and calm them, my DD loves swimming but DS is 6 months and while he doesn't hate it he does have moments where he can get overwhelmed and I just take him to one side and give him some eye contact and a cuddle, bouncy him on my hip a little till he feels calm again, give him another minute and join back in the class. I don't see it as a waste of time as it'd be worse if he got really worked up and we had to leave and he then got a hatred of the water.

Definitely take baby's towel onto the pool side and get them dressed first. They may still cry but at least they'll be warm and dry. And another vote for taking a bottle for afterwards, mine are always hungry afterwards and it also helps calm them if they are upset. I take snacks for DD now as it has the same affect.

Take it easy and try and enjoy it. If you're calm, baby is more likely to be calm.

Good luck!

We’ve been swimming lessons weekly since 3/4months, son now a year old and still loving it 😊 every baby in the class has cried or been sick in the pool (the net of shame nooo) at least once but they’re used to it and all the babies love it unless tired or hungry. I’m sure you’ll love it!
Tips I’ve picked up:
-for baby, swim nappy (I prefer disposable huggies), happy happy over the top of it and if you’re worried about baby getting cold you can get little padded wrap suits or insulated wet suits from splash about, but personally I found them a bit restricting by your babies age. Pools normally warmer than normal anyway. Mine always wore a UV swimsuit thing over the top but that was just because I thought it looked cute, no practicality to it. Will probably scrap the uv suit soon as it’s one more thing to wrestle him out of.
-if you’re in a communal changing room like I am, try and nab yourself a corner spot if your baby is at the sitting up stage, much easier to wedge them on their mat propped up in the corner while you change. Only have to worry about baby falling forwards then 🙈

• wear your swimsuit under your clothes on the way there but get baby changed there. Swim nappies don’t hold wee so not worth a wet car seat!

-take a padded roll up changing mat (mine is Clair de lune branded, waterproof bottom handy!), a poncho toddler towel and then another baby towel. I normally just take a smallish one for myself as I do my top half first then the bottom so big ones a waste of space. I wrap the poncho and baby towel around a hot water bottle in the winter so it’s nice and warm when it goes on.

• I agree with the people saying get yourself changed first, once my sons changed he gets antsy. Strip his wet clothes off, warm poncho on and cover his legs with the spare baby towel. I used to give him a rattle/teether to play with but now he’s older and harder to keep still he has a bag of baby snacks.

-AVOID SKINNY JEANS! 😂 take clothes you can get on yourself, and baby quickly. -don’t forget a baby hat in the winter, wet ears can lead to ear infections.

Some weeks it feels like a faff but we love going overall and feel like his water confidence has definitely grown loads. Have fun!

Swim nappies aren't nappies they're poo catchers. I had no idea and fit dts dressed at home to go swimming the first time, when we got to the pool they and their car seats were soaked through...

If you can take the car seat into the changing rooms if your driving, then get baby changed first and strap them in the seat while you get changed.

And got...

Take towels onto poolside so you can wrap up baby (& you) as soon as you're out of the water.
Take a baby ride-in float - my DC loved these.
Second the suggestion about the wearable towel, wear when getting baby dry and dressed first. I used to get DC dressed, give a feed if they were upset, then get dressed. DC often fell asleep on the way home & would wake up hungry & grumpy otherwise.

Also my eldest used to produce huge amounts of wee about 30 minutes after getting out the pool - enough to saturate nappy, through clothes etc. So take spares of everything (including blankets!) if not going straight home after.

Hope it goes well - I think it's good to get them used to the water early on.

Go and see how it goes. We didn't do baby swimming lessons but we took our babies swimming. If the baby screams and hates it then you know to leave it for a while. If they enjoy it (which some babies do) then go for it. Mine were both indifferent so we went swimming every couple of weeks.

We survived! He was actually so good and the only baby not to cry!

Thank you so much for the helpful tips. For next week I’ve definitely learnt a few things:

• definitely get dressed myself first. I got DS dressed and went to pick him up to put his sleep suit down and holding him against my wet suit got his clothes wet.
• get there earlier. We were running slightly late so I didn’t have time to get towels ready as I would have liked.
• definitely nap before. I managed to get a nap in before we went which really helped but as our bag wasn’t ready we were late.

Just another question - how tight are the swim shorts meant to be? We have the splash around ones and they left quite a red mark on DS when I got him changed and worried they might be too tight.

Glad you had a good time! They do always seem quite tight but not sure about the red mark, might just have been sat funny on him. I’d say as tight as a wet suit normally is, but the measurements are on their website if you wanted to check sizing 😊 my boy is around 75th centile and he’s recently gone into the 12m+ size at 11m old

Glad you enjoyed it, we're starting with DS2 aged 5 weeks soon, I hope he enjoys it as much as his big brother did!!

How did it go?

I've just signed up to start in March :)

I strip the baby, wrap in towel then I get dressed quickly. Top and leggings work well. Then dress the baby.