swimming aids for a 3 year ol

[Coddylicious]

Looked att he gltc and they have lots of them - am off to france with dsses and need onefor ds2 and maybe ds1 (1)
have a look

please? which one is the best

Well - not too much experience - DSs are 4 and 1, so we're still into these things ourselves...

we have the Baby float seat (youngest may even have grown out of it, so let me know if you're interested - it was only heading for eBay anyway)
Certainly at age 10 months he really loved it last year, and it meant we could happily let him float around the pool with us, without having to hold onto him or anything...

Otherwise we used arm bands last year for the (then) 3 year old and that was OK, but a bit restrictive in his arm movements, and now that he is learning to swim we want to make sure he can move properly.

friends of ours have raved about the swimsuits with removeable floats in. Personally I have 2 concerns:
a) look more suitable for girls (girly swimsuit style?)
b) think both of ours would refuse to wear them.

Think we'll probably go for UV sunsuits with 'Konfidence' jackets - although I've also heard that if you don't get these quite the right size they can 'ride up' around their ears!

when and where are you off to in France? we're nr Ste maxime from 12 June.

wow! thanks mo

hmm think ds3 willl need somehting more nobie thsn swim seat but thanks..

Coddy - what's nobie?
and where are you going anyway?

royan in july

mobile

DD used to wear one of the swimsuits with floats and they are brilliant.

is your DS2 about 3 Coddy? If so would suggest just armbands. The foam circular ones 9what they give them at lessons now) are good, our local sportshop sells them.

Back floats etc. are complete waste of time.

Sorry swimsuit with floats was in use from about 12 months. We used to stick armbands on as well at first so she could paddle off on her own.

do you need armnads as well for the baby?

DS1 has the Konfidence jacket and it has been brilliant - he really doesn't need me at all in the water while he has it on and it's really helped his swimming. As a swimming teacher in a previous life, I would not encourage armbands as they hold the arms up which doesn't help when trying to swim! I think they're suitable from 12m so maybe you could get one each! The swim seat is quite good too but really only for floating around in and won't help them to swim.
HTH

armbands and, if your 3 yr old's quite confident, noodles

watch out for gltc though - warehouse accuracy and delivery timing was dreadful at end of last year - seriously orders placed early october were not right until late december

OK - you've reminded me to list my stuff on eBay, so if anyone's looking for a swim seat or UV protection suits get over to eBay!

Not armbands - like Tommy said, they're restrictive for swimming and pretty much anything else. I've not used any swim aids for DSs since they grew out of the swim seat but I'd go for the type with the floats around the body which promote a better swimming position. I've seem loads of children in the US with the jacket types which look more "right" for boys than the swimsuit ones.

We got a blue swim jacket with floats in for ds2 from ELC But have just checked on-line catalogue and there are none in. May have to look in shops. We paid £25 and it has been worth every penny. Ds2 it all last year and is still in it this year - think suit was for age 2 and he will be 3 this June.
He wouldn't keep armbands on - and with the jacket I don't worry about him falling in whilst running about like a raving looney.

Are the Bema (or something similar) jackets in woolworths really that different from the Konfidence ones - apart from being half the price??

What are you going for, Coddy?

What about something like this? inflatable jacket We bought one in spain 3 years ago - much better than the jackets with removable floats IMO, and cheaper.