Best Baby Buoyancy Aid? (11mo)

[circlehead]

Hi all,

My DS has been swimming fairly regularly since he was a couple of months old, enjoys the water, and now seems to want to be more independant in the pool. I have always just held him/swished him around etc, but he is big and my arms get knackered!

So what do you recommend for a (big) 11mo? I have been looking at swimseats, but are they more for baby babies? Also armbands seem to get mixed reviews in terms of not allowing their arms to be in correct position for swimming. I am not so worried about that, as I say, it's just to allow him to be a bit more independant of me and give my arms a rest

early learning centre sell a swimming waistcoat.

DD has been using for 3 years and still fits.

Arms are free to move and you can take out the floats 1 by 1 as child gets better at swimming.

Just got back from hol and had so many people asking where they could get one.

They are made by Zoggs.

these are brilliant

haha, that looks awesome! perhaps not for babies though..?

Might just spend a fiver on armbands to start with and see how he gets on. Move onto shark fins when he's a bit older :)

we used arm bands and then ds graduated to a swim noodle/woggle thing

We have had the buoyancy jackets that cheekymonkey mentions. They are great as the hold the child up but they can move their arms to paddle around. Also ours understand that like putting on a swimming costume they need to have their buoyancy jacket before going in the water. We have 2, one from 1-3 years old and the other 3-6 years old - 3 kids, older one no longer needs anything and middle one is just in process of only using shark fin. DS is 18 months and been swimming a few times wearing the smaller one, he is quite happy in it.