Swimming Floats

I started Munchkin swimming as soon as I could as I believe you can't start that too early.  Especially as we will be spending time at my parents cottage in the summers and well, that lake will just call out to him I'm sure. 

The swimming we've been doing has been really mostly play, but he's learning to be comfortable in the water.  The classes we are going to are we go to are run by Diaper Fit in Toronto.  The classes are kind of neat.  The first half hour is a fitness for Mom/Dad and the last half is for the babies with songs and getting used to the water.  He seems to like them.  I probably should have waited until he was a wee bit older (just a month or two I started him at just 5 months).  He was getting a bit cold by the end.  But he's pretty good now.


Anyway, for the first part the babies get to float in these floats

I really like them and Robbie seems to as well.  You can get them for $22 at Toysrus in the summer season.  I've already bought one for the cottage.  They are by a company called Swimways.

Swim Diapers

There are a couple of things about swimwear to talk about I guess.  The first is the Swim Diaper and then the actual swimsuit.  I think I will save the swimsuits for another post.  So shall we go right in?

I will be captain obvious here and say...well normal diapers won't work so well in a pool or lake.  So yeah, don't do it.   You do have 2 options with special swim diapers.  One is the disposable route and the other are reusable swim diapers.  I have nothing to say so far about the disposable ones.  I haven't used them yet. Both Pampers and Huggies make them.  I haven't used them for a couple of reasons.  The first being that Munchkin has been too small so far for them to fit properly and the second being that the pools I've been taking him to don't allow disposable swim diapers.  I might get a package for the summer at the cottage, but I'm not really sure if I will.  I think perhaps the reusable ones will work just as well.

I have two kinds right now....The Kushies and the Bummis.  The Kushies one seems to work quite well. No complaints there.  The Bummis I haven't used yet because it is the next size up, but I think that perhaps at next week's swimming class they will be in use as the current swim diaper is getting a wee bit small.  

Most public pools seem to want you to use the reusable ones these days so it's always best to check before you go.

I will warn you though, the swim diapers are pretty much designed to keep the poop in.  they don't do much to keep the wee in.

I'll do a post once I've tried out the Bummis swim diapers on how they compare with the Kushies.

Gagou Swimsuit

The bathing suit I'm currently using for Munchkin is one by Gagou Tagou.  Sadly I'm not all that impressed with it.  It's cute and it fits well but it hasn't held up so well.  I've taken him swimming all of 6 times and the fabric is disintegrating.  You know how that happens after awhile with your bathing suits being used in chlorine for a long time.  I just think the suit should last more than 6 swims before that happens.

It's a bit disappointing, but I guess it happens.  The funny thing is that I usually love the Gagou Tagou stuff.  It's generally very cute and has held up well.  But I guess every company has a lemon product once in awhile.