swim diaper requirement

[rissierae]

This is more of a vent than anything, beware.

So I was looking into swim lessons for my ds, and was reading the course descriptions. One that I was interested in said it was for 18 months to 5 years old, and that wearing a swim diaper is required. I then looked under the pool rules and it said that unless a child was toilet trained they must wear a swim diaper, makes sense. Well I told the lady that my ds was toilet trained, and she just said that he had to wear a swim diaper because it's the facility's rule. I left it at that, I didn't ask her if they made potty trained 5 year olds wear a diaper. My ds won't be taking swimming lessons there, that's all.

[hrsmom]

What does your LO wear in the pool? The swim diapers and bathings suits for toddlers that I've seen just have a liner (in case they poop?) but don't look that different from bathing suits for older kids. Like this swim diaper. Do you just put on shorts or something? Or are they requiring a disposable swim diaper? That I would definitely object to! (Yuck!)

[Ruthla]

I would just buy him a bathing suit with a built-in swim diaper and call it a day. It's hard to find bathing suits in baby sizes without that anyway.

[dachshundqueen]

Most facilities nearby and the ones I have frequented in SoCal require nylon pants, a swim diaper (cloth or sposie), and a swimsuit.

My child PL'd at 18 months and it was always interesting to explain that yes he was PL'd. At my parents pool, we did do the triple layer as it was a $500 fee for cleanup in the event of fecal contamination with no triple layer action (it's a private pool of about 40 families and I believe my parents are on the board).

Liz

[rissierae]

His swimsuit does have a liner, and I think that it would keep the poop contained if he did go (I don't know for sure because it's never happened). I told her this is what he would wear, she said that was not allowed. My understanding was that they require disposable swim diapers. It said "commercial" swim diapers only. So whatever commercial means. Maybe there's a cloth one that would be approved.

[hrsmom]

That's irritating! Maybe she doesn't really know what a swim diaper is! I had one that I bought for my baby when she was tiny, and it was just like a bathing suit.

[itsrtimedownhere]

ugh. this same thing happened to me. i told the lifeguard that he was pt'd and she TOLD me "no, he's not." i wanted to punch her in the face.

[Fyrestorm]

Just had to pipe in here...My DH works for our local Y. Of all the times they have had to close the pool down because of an 'accident' 99% of the time it was caused by a senior...not a child.

The child incidents generally involve vomit from swallowing water. Do they require babies to wear a barf bag?

[34me]

I work at a rec center and we have code browns frequently and require a swim diaper but are they going to check every little heiny, we don't....

[itsrtimedownhere]

one time, we were in our neighborhood pool. there were 2 other families there. we were in the middle. they were on either side of us. one family had 4 kids, 2 teens and 2 preteens. one of them pooped in the pool and blamed in on my then 2 year old. the teen girl came over to us, pointed to where they were swimming and said "um. i think your baby pooped in the pool." we weren't even near them. they even went over to the other family and pointed to us as we were drying off to leave.

funny thing that happened later was that gate guard that had to "deal with it" talked to my dh the next day and said something like "omg. it was huge. there was no way that came out of a 2 year old." haha gross.

[isabchi]

This is one of the strange thing that we had to suffer when do you had an EC baby. We use a swim suit with a lainer inside. Most of the babies use the same kind of swim suits plus a disposable diaper...(no,thanks!!)

[notjustmamie]

I'm really curious about the PT'd five year olds, too. My DD (not ec'd) hasn't worn a swim diaper since she was about 3--when she stopped wearing daytime diapers outside the pool!

They do make (commercial) cloth swim diapers. I bought one when DD was an infant. It was in the same aisle as the disposables at one of the big box stores (Meijer or Target, I think). It looked like a pair of training pants--nylon on the outside and terrycloth on the inside.

[pumpkin]

Our pool requires a cloth swim diaper. The ones that just look like swimsuit bottoms anyway. The disposable ones aren't allowed. Even Target sells cloth swim diapers.

[caro113]

Originally Posted by hrsmom

That's irritating! Maybe she doesn't really know what a swim diaper is! I had one that I bought for my baby when she was tiny, and it was just like a bathing suit.

Me too. In fact, I made it DD's swimsuit this past summer. She was only 8-10 months old this summer so I didn't bother to find her a top and she wore only the cloth swim diaper. (I did discover though, that many places sell tops to match the swim diaper for girls, so that's helpful for people who don't like baby girls topless.) I bought it mainly because I use cloth diapers and I didn't want to get disposable swim diapers. Plus, the cost of the one swim diaper was the same as a pack of disposables. Why would I bother to spend the extra money if I didn't have to?

You can simply google "cloth swim diaper". I went here and found a great pink one (-: I'll probably buy her another one next summer if she grows out of it but they're a great investment if you plan to have other children. They can all wear the same one. And if you like indoor pools, then it really doesn't matter if your children are all difference ages and sizes in the summer.

[BirthKathy]

Thanks for this thread! I had no idea that there were cloth swim diapers. We just started YMCA lessons two weeks ago, and we have been using disposables. They're so big and heavy on a 6 month old, poor kid! Plus there's no way he's going to poop in the pool - he doesn't even like pooping in his diaper.

[dogretro]

I put dd in a waterproof trainer. She has pooped in them before, so I know they work, heehee. They are v trim and dont hold much water. I figure, look, I would rather put my kid in a cloth swim diaper than to even be SUSPECTED as the family who caused a "code brown"!!!!!!!

All the major cloth diaper manufacturers make cloth swim diapers. I have never had a single guard say boo about dd being in cloth. Like I said, we put one on and keep our heads down. If you dont say anything, they will assume what your kid is wearing works.

[lifeguard]

In all the years I worked at pools the pool foulings were usually by babies/toddlers whom the parent was positive they were pl'd. It's not just an inconvenience. Depending on the set up of the pool & the regulations a loose bm in the pool could mean shutting down the entire pool for 4-8 hours (however long it takes to run a complete cycle of the filter system) which is expensive & irritating for everyone. When I had to deal with it it meant spending hours on the phone calling all the participants in upcoming programs to let them know it was cancelled & have someone standing at the door to tell those who we didn't catch on the phone, which meant having someone standing at the door to get yelled at.

Honestly, a cloth swim diaper is really not much different than a swim bottom & could potentially save everyone a lot of hassle.

In a private pool not such a big deal.