Get your child water confident
In a recent survey by travel agents First Choice, 92 per cent of children said that when on holiday they went in the pool every single day.
A huge 60 per cent of kids said that swimming was their favourite thing to do whilst away proving the activity was more popular than sightseeing, playing on the beach or even eating ice cream.
Getting your children used to the pool and learning to swim is not only an essential life skill but it is a fun activity that keeps children fit and helps them to build confidence around water.
Getting your child into the pool as young as possible will give them a great head start in water confidence. There are many swimming programmes you can join such as Aqua Babies and Water Babies. They have very structured classes geared towards specifically aged young babies.
You don’t have to wait until your baby has been immunised to take them swimming because the chlorine in the pool will kill off bacteria. Pool policies may vary though so it is worth checking out what age your pool will allow babies to swim before you go.
If you are going to go regularly then do get baby swimming nappies. A disposable swimming nappy underneath a suit or trunks is ideal should they do the inevitable poo whilst in the water. They don’t swell up when wet like normal nappies do, and good brands of swimming nappies such as Huggies will contain any wee or poo.
For building confidence in water and a good range of baby and toddler swimming apparel, Chopsy Baby loves the Australian swimming brand Zoggs. The range features fun cartoon character Zoggy, and the products are manufactured to exceed both Australian and European safety standards.
We got father and daughter swimmers Mat and six-year-old Emily to test out the Zogg’s Seal Search and Rescue to build up her confidence swimming under water.
“While on holiday at Butlins my daughter and myself went to the swimming pool for a few hours of splashing fun. Knowing that my little girl enjoyed swimming I was asked to try out the Seal Search and Rescue on behalf of Chopsy Baby.
”They were an instant success! The second I chucked them in the pool my daughter turned into a mermaid and vanished beneath the surface of the water and came up with one of the seals with a huge grin on her face and while slightly out of breath saying she got one.
”Then as I blinked she was gone under to get another one from the bottom of the pool. This kept happening till she managed to get all four seals back to me. Then I gave her a little rest to catch her breath and threw them in a little deeper. To my amazement she kept this up for most of our time in the pool apart from when we checked out the wave machine. I was shocked to see as we were leaving the pool another parent with a pack of these seals getting his toddler to get theirs off the bottom of the baby pool
”I think these seal would of been handy when I first started to get her swimming as they make going under water fun. Even though some children are ok with going under water I know there are more that burst out crying at the thought of it.”
Seal Search and Rescue £9.99
http://www.zoggs.com
