swimming vest, which is best?

[milkybarsrus]

please can i have some advice on the best swimming vest/swimsuit with floats to buy my fearless toddler of 22 months? we are going on holiday abroad in december and i want to put a floatie type jacket on him, preferably one that will keep his chin above the water??? please can some one give me some idea on what to buy as they are VERY expensive and I can't afford to make a mistake.

we had a mothercare floatie and didnt like it, we got one of those inflatable baby seat and she loved it cause then her face didnt go in the water and she could kick her legs

Nothing is really going to keep his chin out of the water until he's got the hang of keeping his balance. I would go with a baby seat / rubber ring & armbands combo.

We've got about 8 different float suits, and haven't yet found one that works perfectly.

I ahve heard that those suits wioth floats in can be tricky to get the hang of.

I uised a rubber ring with my ds for a bit and he could move around easily by kicking his legs. The polystyrene arm 'biscuits' are also very good as the child gets used to being in teh correct position in the water. 'Woggles' are excellent too for learning to swim with.

Do you have to keep his chin above water? IME one of the best confidence boosters is for chilren to learn to go below the water - my ds (4) gets into 'trouble' at swimming lessons becasue he spends all his time under water, but he loves the water and is very confident. He even managed to swim in the deep end last week from one side to the otehr - the only thing that 'upset' him was that he could not reach the bottom of the pool!

It is trickier tho as you have to watch them all the time!