Help! First time baby swimming - logistics

[KMUN]

Will be starting lessons soon with DD (18 weeks), but won't have chance to do a dry run first. Lots of questions and local sports centre is fairly crap at answering things generally

• Would you take a buggy into changing-room/pool-side?
• How do you actually get into pool with baby? (I don't think there are helpful shallow-end steps)
• Do they need any buoyancy-aids, surely too little for arm-bands??
• Any other tips from baby-swimming pros out there?

Sorry, looking forward to it, but slightly freaked out about what to expect!

I didnt do swimming lessons but regularly take ds swimming and have done since 3 months or so.

• we did take a buggy and parked at the wall at the side of the pool (no-one ever told us off so it must have been ok!!)
• our sports centre has a training pool where the shallow end is all just steps so dont know what you'd do for that one
• I would think you would just hold them to get them confident in the water (you do get teeny arm bands but they didnt help keep ds's face above the water so it was easier just to hold him)
• top tip is take a towel to the side of the pool as they get cold quickly. Also, put your costume on under your clothes before you go.

re: the buoyancy aids, some teachers don't like them to be used at all. The teacher will tell you what is required - ours went for no aids for babies (you aren't going to be letting go of them!) and various (non-arm-band type) for older babies and toddlers.

Most pools don't mind buggies going just inside the changing rooms - many say 'no' to poolside (dirty wheels + water = no no), or even further in the changing room. They'll tell you quickly enough if you breach their rules.

KMUN - hope you enjoy swimming with your baby, I'm sure you'll be fine. To answer your questions:

• I take the buggy thro to changing rooms, at our pool there are family changing rooms that are large enough to accomodate buggy (and have changing tables), some places have special buggy lockers
• Getting into the pool, erm carefully? We have learner pool so same as Seona
• no armbands at this age, they are light enough to hold in your arms
• other tips, DS was always ravenous after swimming, so be ready to feed as soon as you get out if need be (baby wrapped in nice warm towel of course).

We leave the pushcahir in a space not near the pool.

I just sort of slide in with the baby - watch how the other people do it.

We don't tak our own bouyancy aids but are given woggles there.

Second the towel to the pool side.

Make sure you have a towel on the top of your changing bag to grap for you and then your baby's clothes ready - thry get cold quickly.

aaaaah this is so sweet! print it oyut and keep it for when you take three!

think fo all the nobs who manage to take kids swimmign then reassure oyurself oyu are NOT one therefore cna cope.

-Take the pushchair.
-If you can get into the pool safely with your baby, they shouldn't be holding lessons there.

• No boyancy aids- your swimming teacher should provide everything you need.

-Take a spare towel. My dd always wees on hers!

Enjoy! My daughter LOVED her swim lessons.

Thanks all, keep the tips coming -they're great. Showing more ignorance, have bought a re-useable swimming nappy - this goes over costume, right? Would you do same with Little Swimmers or a.n.other disposables? Which are more effective?

It's all probably going to be blindingly obvious when I get there and fun, but need to settle my planning anxiety!!

swim nappy under the costume!

swim nappy (reusable or disposable) goes under swimwear. ds just goes in with a swim nappy on - we used to use disposables but as we go most weeks it was cheaper to buy a reusable. You can also get girls swimming costumes with built in nappies so you wouldnt need a separate layer of nappy.

I used to take car seat in, leave ds in car seat while I got changed, then change him. Take towel in with you. You can lie baby at the side of the pool (feet pointing to water) but far enough back hop in and then pick baby up - went to waterbabies classes - this is what they advised if no steps.

We had disposable swim pants with a pair of trunks of the top - just in case. If no solids then you can stick nappy in the washing machine a good few times and re-use. Although boots have 2 packs of 12 for £4 at the moment.

Used to dress ds in fleecey sleepsuit thing as it was easy to get off and quick and warm to get back on.

Never bothered with swim aids, just kept a hold of ds - worse case senario you drop him in pool - assuming you are only going to be in the shallow end no harm will come as long as you grab her again - they have a refex action when they go under water.

re: getting into the pool with your baby, the person giving the lessons where we go takes the baby and hands them back to you once you are in the pool. Or you could ask one of the other parents to do this.

It seems much more complicated going swimming with a baby than it actually is - worst part is that you dont get to have a proper shower and you freeze a little while you get your baby dressed first after the lesson! Other than that its great fun.

everyone has said the things that i would say, i started taking my ds when he was 2 mo and although he HATED it the first couple of times, i persevered thru the screams (on the advice of the teacher) and then he just LOVED it and continues to now - if i tell him we are going swimming he runs to the door! And he never wants to get out the pool..
i am sure you will have a great time but just wanted to tell you my story in case your ds is like mine!

Wrap baby in towl when you get out of water, then put your dressing gown on (honest). You will be getting dry while seeing to them, then you just have to throw your own clothes on once they are back in the buggy

Towel

Thanks for the nappy instructions, the one I have bought looks massive and I doubt it will squeeze under tiny cute costume - hence my school-girl error . Oh well, another trip to Mothercare (sigh)

the smallest size you can get is still pretty huge iirc, i think they said something like "from 16lb" on the ones i first used with my ds but he was only about 11lb at the time! they didn't fall off

Hi Kmun, hope you have fun swimming with your DD. I can only speak from experience, but I am now on the 2nd course with water babies and finally my 7 mo DD loves it (she did spend about 3 lessons screaming her head off, but like one of the other posters above, we perservered and she now loves it again).

Where we go there is a strict 'no buggies' rule both poolside and in the changing rooms. To get round this I just take DD in her car seat and make sure I have her favourite toy so that when she is dried and changed after swimming she is kept happy whilst I quickly change out of my wet things.

I was also concerned about how to get in and out of the pool with DD. For the first few lessons the instructor took DD from me and then handed her to me when I was in the water. Now I lay her on the side of the pool, feet facing the water & get in the pool next to her. Same for when I get out. One thing the instructor said is to never hold the baby whilst getting in or out using the normal swimming pool type steps. She said that if there was no other option, then ask a stranger to help rather than do that.

As far as I know, no bouyancy aids are needed. But what I do use is a little baby wetsuit for my DD. As I said earlier, she did get very upset for a few lessons, so I thought one of the reasons might be that she was getting chilly. The wetsuit certainly seems to have helped.

Where we go they insist on a 'double nappy' system -- disposable swim nappy under a resusable swim nappy to avoid any spillages (apparently the pool would have to close for 18 hours if there were any accidents!).

The only other thing I would say is gone are the days where I used to shower, dry my hair, do my make-up, etc after swimming! Now it is just get DD sorted and comfortable & get out of my wet stuff and into a tracksuit as quickly as possible!

Enjoy it!!

Kmun, I remember taking my DD swimming for the first time, i think she was about 10 weeks old. i was dreading it!

Top tips - i would second whoever said to take a babygro for after swimming. i could never get my DD dry faast enough for her liking and a babygro is so much easier. Havign said that i still havent learned, we have been going to swimming lessons since september, only in the last 4 weeks has she started to love it......persevering was hard! Last week trying to get gher back into her tights was a nightmare!

Expect to spend next to no time on yourself at the pool so make it easy on yourself - Wear the most comfy/easy to get in and out of clothes that you own.

Expect the instructor - you said lessons right? - to show you the safest way of gettign baby in /out

If you're a dummy user - have one at the ready.

Be prepared to feed straight afterwards - my DD used to demand a bottle as soon as we were dressed.

I also use a baby wetsuit, baby wrap like this

Have a fab time

how did it go kmun?

They start next week; I'm well ahead of myself . Thoughtful of you to check though, I might do a little diary entry.

sorry thought it was today, do let us know how it goes!

Ladies, thanks so much for all the tips. The lesson went very well indeed, while DD was dubious to say the least, she coped for 30 mins and didn't cry.

Car seat and towel with hood, at the pool-side were invaluable and I've also got a fab rubber-backed swim changing mat, which is just the job for communal changing-room floors. Uncomplicated baby clothes = big tick.

I would never have thought of taking a dressing gown for me, but it was the business.

And it was an instructor hand-off while I used the steps to get in and out.

Thanks again for making me appear like a pro!