Starting Water Babies this week but concerned about swimming pool chemicals

[spottystripey]

What do people think? I waited around a year ish to take DS1 to pool. DS2 is now 5 months and starts Water Babies this week but I'm considering cancelling because of concerns about the chemicals.

AFAIK they are perfectly fine.

I took DD at about 10 weeks...She too starts swimming lessons this afternoon- underwater! Cant wait.

My DD gets eczema and I was concerned about the chemicals too. But we live on a riverbank, and I decided that the water safety outweighed the eczema.
I used to put a barrier cream on any patches before going into the pool and a good shower after.
As it turned out, she wasn't too bad at all, and didn't really react to the swimming pool too much.
Later, the lessons got moved to a salt water pool. They're getting quite common now, and are kinder to skin apparently.

I would love to go to a salt water pool!
I don't like them but there's nothing I can do about it. Would rather my child a confident swimmer than not go at all though.

Go, you'll enjoy it and forget about nasties that may or may not lurk! (I hate swimming pool changing rooms and don't really like our pool but always feel so much better after I've gone!)

I mean I don't like the heavy chemical smell in a standard pool.

The thing about swimming pool chemicals is that they really only get nasty if the water isn't clean enough. What makes your eyes sting isn't the chlorine; its the result of chlorine reacting with organic compounds... such as from sweat and urine. So I'm afraid pools used by baby groups or groups of kids who don't shower off first are likely to be particularly bad. The chlorine renders the water safe bacteriologically but there are inevitably by-products which you may or may not be sensitive to.

Thanks all. I think my main concern was some sort of woolly idea that the chemicals could leech through his delicate skin and cause damage "inside" "somehow".

I know, not very thought-through but thought someone on here could do a Ben Goldacre and rid me of my lay-person concerns.