what age did you first take your baby swimming?

[littlemel]

my dd is 11 weeks - i am dying to take her swimming, but i am not sure how early you can take them, i have heard that you have to wait until they have had all their immunisations? anyone know?

I think that is an urban myth on a par with the poodle in the microwave story. Took both of mine at about 8 weeks. Only thing that puts me off sometimes is cold pools!

this sounds like a stupid question, but what do you do about nappies/rubber rings etc? x

Agree with MD - I took my ds after 2 sets of immunisations. He wore a disposable swim nappy under some normal swim trunks and I pushed him around in one of those swim seats babies can sit in. It was fantastic!

My HV said the official line was they had to have all 3 of the DTP/Polio/HIB, but she personally thought it was fine as long as they had had first set of jabs.

Depends where you are swimming and what in! Ours were in the pool from their first week but it was our pool plus it is salt water. Both mine were summer babies so were under a month when they were in the ocean. I think you just have to be careful they don't get too cold and they need lots of protection from the sun. We had a complete body suit...ankle to wrist thing plus hat as I didn't want to use sun screen too early.

I think it's OK after the 2nd set of baby jabs - that's when we first took ours but only keep them in the pool for about 10 mins to start with as they get very cold.

I think I first took my dd at around 10-12 weeks. Can't remember now if she'd had her 3rd set of jabs.

We're lucky to have a physiotherapy pool near us, which also does baby swimming, and it really is as warm as a bath, so it's brilliant when they're tiny and might otherwise get cold quickly.

I really recommend swimming - my dd adored it.

whenever i felt like it I hink

I was a competitive swimmer so was really keen to get DD in the water asap. She was about 12 weeks when she had her first dip in an outdoor pool in Cornwall. We could have gone earlier, as I had been told by HV that we didn't have to wait for her to have her jabs.

Pools with learner pools are better as the water is warmer - you will get cold as well as the baby in the main pools. I got DD a hooded, towelling dressing towel to wrap her in as soon as we got out.

You can get swimming nappies to put under a normal costume, or you can get swimming costumes that are nappies too for about £10.

The baby seats are good to start with, but I hardly used mine, I preferred to hold her. When she's a little older, don't bother with first size arm bands, start with age 2+. The 0-2 ones don't have enough air in them for the baby to float on their own.

Can thoroughly recommend it as an activity!

Took both of mine after their first jabs and they loved it. I didn't use inflatables to start with either but when dd (my first) got to about 10 months I bought one of those costumes with the inflatables inside. With that and armbands I was able to let go of her which she loved as she felt like a big girl. As we went swimming a lot I bought one of the Kooshies reuseable swimming nappies. Be warned though that seepage can occur !! As I found out one day when laughing with a friend about which poor mum's baby had a leaking nappy only to realise that the poo trail was following us! AAAgh

I took Dd when she was about 6 weeks, but we were living in Darwin Australia at the time, so we were actually taking her to lessons ( good excuse for a bunch of new mums to get together and chill out) No one said anything about jabs, they were just keen for babies to get used to water as so many families had pools. Most supermarkets sell swimming nappies. Go for it, Dd is now 20 months and LOVES swimming.

Took DD at 5 months. Took a few lessons for her to get into it, but now loves it at 1 year. The changing before and after was probably the hardest thing about it. I wanted her to feel comfortable and confident in the water. Our class was a good way to have fun and get her used to the water. Plus they teach safety tips.

Mothercare and John Lewis both carry reusable swimm nappies. Good luck! Have fun.

Took DS after first jabs. Took DD at 6 weeks (so before first jabs) to pool at caravan park on holiday. She loved it and still does. I use disposable swim nappies. Also use one of those baby seats but thats because I take DS and DD together. So part of the time sit her in that so I can concentrate on him and then take her out part of the time. But swim seats only really useful from about 4 months when they can hold themselves up a bit.

took both dd's from 5 weeks but didnt stay in for long cos i know how they get cold easy. still take them and we all have agreat time. great way of tiring them out!

i used one of these blow up baby float things and dd1 (2) now uses armbands.

swim nappies are great too!

does anyone know about this new law that states you cannot take 2 children swimming on your own if they are both under 8? sothat means that if you have 2 children say 7 and 5 you cant take them swimming even if they are good swimmers. you would have to take another adult with you. i think thats really sad because it means a lot of children will miss out. i think you are capable of deciding if you can manage to look after both or not

I think its 1-1 with under 4s and 1-2 with under 8s. But means that you couldn't take a 3yo and 7 yo on your own for example. At our local baths they let you take them to the parent/child sessions though.

thanks bozza, that sounds like a good idea, must ask about parent and child sessions at my local pool

thanks for all the advice, i cant wait now to take her!!