2 Year Old Swimmer

My 18 month old is the same way (her older siblings swim and she wants to also). We tried the swim suit with built in floats and it did not work.I found her a little innertube attached to sleeves at target in the swim department. She is able to "swim" by herself (with us near by of coarse). My older 2 learned to swim independently at age 3 (they are now 4 and 6) using a speedo brand swim vest with removable foam pieces that we took out little by little.

We used the swim suit with the floation thingies in them. It was a heaven sent!

My daughter is just as independent as yours sounds. she has been in the pool for almost her whole life. She turns 4 in three weeks.

Since day one of her insistance of not being in the water floats (like the little boats and so forth) we have let her in with the arm floaties. But not the thin plastic. The ones we bought were a hot pink with white flowers and are a cloth covering..... I will look tonight to see if I cant find the brand name on them,,,, but we are now slowly letting the air out a little at a time because she has the basics of kicking her feet and moving her arms and she swims the whole length of our pool - its 20 x 40 foot.... and she is a speed demon in her own right, lol

good luck - but I am not big on the body suit... if she leans the wrong way - it is much harder for her to turn herself back over....

BTW - FLOATSAFE Floaties is what they are called....

Dont do the infant swim lessons... Ugh!

The American Academy of Pediatrices STROGLY recomends against these. They recomend at the age of 3.5-4 starting a child in swim lessons...

Your best bet is the suits with the floats built in... I am getting ready to get one for my 21m old. He is much like your dd. My youngest had one at her age..

good luck!

My daughter entered the pool when she was 3 months old and never got out!!!
We used the arm floaties because she always wanted to be in the pool-they worked great when she began to walk and wanted to jump in the water right away. We worked on techniques with her, even putting her face in the water when she was 3 months (blowing into her face so she holds her breath and quickly dunking her)-she LOVED it and never wanted to get out of the water.
When she was a little over 2, she quit using the floaties on her own. Someone was always with her, but she really wanted to continue on her own. She joined the swim team when she was 5 and swam varsity all through high school. She received letters of interest from colleges starting in her freshman year of high school, but had no interest in swimming in college. She will finish up all her competetive swimming this weekend when she completes her final meets Saturday and Sunday. She is a wonderful swimmer. Will all children turn out that way? No, but it's worth a try.

We went with the suit also. She loves it but if she wears it for more than an hour, her underarms chaffe. We are tossing it and getting one of the life jackets like they have at sea world. They are super soft and US coast guard approved. They don't have any seams to rub her arms raw.

My 12 month old (yes 12 months) does not like to be confined and does not want to be held either. We got him a float suit but it made him float on his belly with face in water instead of feet down(he could not get back over), when his feet were down(only if I helped him balance) it would push against his chin, it also threw his balanced off so I was scared he would wipe out on the concrete but I am not sure that would be an issue for your daughter since I am guessing she has been walking for a while now. We got him arm floaties and they work great for him. He gets to be a big boy and not have me hold him, (and yes I am always right next to him if anyone is worried)

I am also a fan of the bathing suits - they are great. I also highly recommend you do find some swim lessons for your little one. That is the best thing I ever did - both my 4 and 6 year old can pass the test at our pool to come alone (not that I would ever let them.)But it is great to know that I never have to worry about them falling in an an unattended pool and the scariness that comes with that.

We also used the bathing suit with the built in life perserver, it works well, but since they are top heavy there is a tendency to fall forward in the water. Since their muscles etc are still developing they may not be able to pull themselves back up. (Although we know they won't be unattended it still can be scary a scary feeling to be unstable.) So we used the arm floaty swimsuit combo and it worked great.

Just an FYI the American Academy of Pediatrics does not reccomend swim lessons or allowing a child to swim on their own until at least age 3 do to muscle developement.

the best thing you could do for your daughter is get her swin lessons from a swim instructor trained in the technique from the following website. The problem with any type of flotation device is that it teaches your child to try and gt perpendicular in the water should she fall in and that will just cause her to sink faster...the following website is about a swim lesson technique that will teach your child to get on her back and get her self to the side of the pool and out...it's a bit expensive but worth every penny.

http://www.infantswim.com/company/index.html

My kids are both currently in the infant swim program, and it is absolutely amazing. It is NOT swim lessons, but teaches them what to do if they were to fall in water. The first thing they learn is to float. My kids are 3 and 16 months and my 3 year old has mastered the training in about 11 days. So worth every penny, and there is now an instructor here in SA.

I also have a 2 year old daughter (and 3 year old son) and we have had great success with swim belts...go to amazon for about $13. They snap around their waist and lets them have full use of their arms and legs, unlike arm floaties. It also teaches them to swim on their tummies unlike swimsuits with built ins that only allow them to stay in the upright position. After 2 weeks with the belt my son is swimming unassisted...no belt, going off the diving board, etc... and my daughter is jumping off the side unassisted (with her belt) and swimming back to the steps. By the end of the summer she will prob be swimming without her belt as well. If you have further questions please e-mail me ____@____.com