Baby's First Year

Re: When is my child old enough to go swimming?

Zoe's Momma — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:48:41 GMT

My daughter was 4 months, I think, when we went on vacation. We made sure we had a hat on her and PLENTY of sunblock (maybe too much...if there is such a thing) and we took her to a pool with a "beach" connected to it. There wasn't any sand, but it did slope up like a beach. I sat with her between my legs and let her splash around where the water just covered half of her legs. At first, the water was too cold and I had to take her to one of the sprinklers and let her kick the water with her feet, but she got used to it and had a blast! I did also take her to an adult pool and let her splash in the water while I had a good grip on her.

Re: When is my child old enough to go swimming?

StrongDad07 — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:18:54 GMT

I was thinking about it, and I thought WriteMommy10 had summed it up perfectly for awhile. But I just remember this so I thought I would add my 2 cents finally. She won't fit yet, but when she's a little bigger they make floating rides that block out the sun for children, it would be a great way to share the pool with a pre-swimming child. She can slip her legs inside, the sun is partially blocked, and you two can pal around. My wife and I have been looking forward to summer to get one for our daughter since we saw them at the end of last summer.

Re: When is my child old enough to go swimming?

Shorty_Suger08 — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 03:29:27 GMT

took my doughter in a pool at 3 months and she did fine but she has always loved her baths, i kept her close tho held her all the time, you can start lessons at 6 months and teach them to go under and putting there ears in and stuff, so as long as they like water i dont see any problem in it

Re: When is my child old enough to go swimming?

BabyNurse3 — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:18:43 GMT

I completely agree with writemommy. I wish I had something to add, but I think she said it all. :)

Re: When is my child old enough to go swimming?

writemommy10 — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:16:33 GMT

I think different sources will give you different answers on that. Considering there are a number of infant swimming classes you could probably find in your community, not to mention the wealth of infant pool toys/floaties on the market, I would think that as long as you're taking precautions, there's no need to wait until your baby is a year to introduce them to the water.

That said, physically, at 2 months you baby is still very small. I don't think I brought either of my girls into a pool until they were 7 or 8 months at least, and then their reaction was one of fear because of the size of the pool. With my older one, she was not comfortable being in a pool of any size until she was nearly 5, and I think this may be part of the reason.

My own feeling on this is that because of his physical development now (needing support of the head, can't sit on his own yet, does not have a lot of muscle or temperature control), that the most he could do in a pool is be held close to you. Plus, there may be a risk of him getting too cold from not having many clothes on and being in the water. Does he like his bath? If he doesn't, that may be a good indicator that going in the pool might not work for your baby right now.

This is really a choice you should make after consulting with your doctor about any possible health risks and then assessing whether or not you feel the experience would be a good one for your baby. A lot of the time we do these things more for ourselves than for our kids.

When is my child old enough to go swimming?

sugarray127 — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:37:14 GMT

My daughter is two months old and we are going on vacation this month. There will be a pool there and I was wondering if she was old enough to go in the pool. I read somewhere that I should wait till she was a year old and was wondering if this was true.