Things To Do Before Swimming with Your Baby

It has been 2 months since we take our 8-months baby to swim for the first time. We have written an article about this topic before (please read “Swimming Baby“). While we are still in learning process, we have identified several things that need to be prepared before taking your baby to swim, there are several things you must be prepared. Once you have done all these things, your baby and you will be ready to swim together.

Here are a few things that we suggest:

1. Feed your baby at least one hour before entering the water. It gives energy to your baby. Feeding your baby less than one hour is not recommended, as it is believed to promote muscles cramp.
2. Check your baby temperature. Make sure that your baby is in good health.
3. Check the air and water temperature, make sure you are comfortable with it. If your swimming pool is an open air pool (not in-door swimming pool), then you must consider to check the weather as well. For us, we will not get our baby to swim in cloudy or windy days.
4. Have your baby soap, baby shampoo, dry baby clothes and towel ready at hand. It is also a good idea to prepare extra clothing or an umbrella to protect your baby from sun burn, in case the sun gets to be too much.
5. Apply sunscreen to your baby body before getting into the water. Sunscreen cream with an SPF number of at least 15 will be great. you should re-apply sunscreen, in case you are going to stay awhile and play some more after swimming.
6. Get your baby to wear a comfortable swim suit. There are many brands with many features in the market, like regular swim suits, leak-proof diapers, floating swimsuits and others. We use ARENA products for our baby, they have cute and sexy products for babies.
7. Should your baby use flotation devices like water wings, floating swimsuits and others? The answer is yes and no. You must remember the fact that these devices are not life saving devices. These devices can help your baby to float, but they also give false sense of security in water for your baby. Sometime we use water wings and other toys, however we are just hold and hug our baby in swimming pool for most of the time (see my wife and baby photo above).
8. Dip yourself first into the swimming pool before your baby. Make sure you are comfortable with water temperature. Take your baby slowly into the water while maintaining eye contact. It gives sense of security to your baby.
9. Do not keep your baby to swim too long. We notice that swimming takes a lot of baby energy. Our 8-months baby will get tired and will sleep more the whole day if he swim more than 15 minutes a day, or does not take meal before swimming.

Other things that need to be prepared are eye drops, ear drops and skill on baby CPR. You can check with your doctor which eye drops and ear drops suitable for your baby.

Frankly, baby CPR is an area that we are not master until today, but we know that it is very important. There must be baby CPR course offered around, and we are intended to attend the course.