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The Best Toddler Swimsuit with Flotation

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We found the BEST swimsuit for toddlers. It has built-in flotation and helps our two year old swim independently!

toddler swimming independently

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The BEST swimsuit for toddlers

I wanted to write a quick post about our son's swimsuit which has been a huge game changer for us. 

We usually go to the pool several times a week in the summer. We recently discovered this swimsuit with built-in flotation when we saw another toddler wearing it, and we immediately knew we had to get one for our son:

toddlers in swimsuits

This type of floatsuit is such a game changer. I wish I knew about these types of buoyancy swimsuits before! There are many different styles and colors available. 

Related: This is the reusable swim diaper we use.

Pool safety

Prior to getting this swimsuit, we had to ALWAYS be holding our son in the pool and at the beach. He is an active kid, so he didn't love always being held and pool time often got stressful pretty quickly. We also had slight panic attacks whenever our son ran around the pool or ran towards the ocean, we ALWAYS had to be holding his hand when he was near the water.

Now we can let him float in the pool and explore on his own! And we even give him some breathing room when he is walking near the water. Of course, we can't take out eyes off him and have to be close to him at all times, but at least this swimsuit gives our son a sense of freedom and independence. It also gives us some peace of mind and a physical break from always having to hold him and pull him away from the water. Our pool and beach time has seriously gotten so much more relaxing. We can relax in the pool and watch our son splash around.

Safety tip: Look for bright red and warm-colored swimsuits for your kids instead of blue ones. This way it is easier to spot them in blue water.

Related article: Water Play Ideas for Toddlers

Here is a video of our 2 year old swimming on his own:

 

It took our son 3-4 times of wearing the swimsuit to be completely comfortable in it. At first he held on to his swimsuit if he felt like he needed help, which was adorable but obviously did not help him one bit. He wasn't scared, he was just so used to holding on that he wanted to hold on to something. But the first time he swam across the pool on his own he was SO EXCITED! You could see the joy in his eyes as he yelled "maself! maself!" (meaning, "by myself, by myself!") Now he is able to turn, go where he wants to go, and grab pool toys while swimming "by himself."

He is even figuring out what to do if he gets his chin underwater or gets water in his mouth by accident. This is a good thing. Prior to this, we never let his head go underwater. Our son also had no idea that he had to close his mouth if he wanted to reach for a toy underwater. This resulted in lots of coughing and scary choking moments. Now he closes his mouth when going under or spits the water out. He learned this within a week when he was in this swimsuit, while we tried for months to teach him these concepts and he just had no reason to listen to us.

I wish we knew about this thing a year ago. If you're curious about it, take a look on Amazon here and see if it's right for you: toddler swimsuit.

Even if you are planning on going swimming just a few times over the summer, this swim suit is so worth getting. It's not much more expensive than regular non-flotation swimsuits, and it offers sun protection as well. Surprisingly enough, our son loves wearing this thing and we never have an issue trying to get him to put it on.

By the way if you're curious, we have these reusable swim diapers. They're SO much cheaper than disposable ones, especially because these are adjustable in size and we've been using them since our son was a baby.

toddler swimsuit with flotation

Related article: Mud Kitchen Ideas for Toddlers

As our son gets older and stronger, we plan on slowly taking out the removable flotation foam and letting him gradually adjust to floating with less support. Maybe he'll learn to swim this way?? (Please note, I am NOT a professional instructor, and I am not encouraging you to try using this method, this is just something we might try.)

There are a lot of different types of toddler swimsuits with built-in flotation on Amazon here. We picked the one we have because it was one of the cheaper options that was not pink, had sleeves and shorts for sun protection, and had the size listed by height and weight, not in chest circumference or torso length... I don't think we could get my son to hold still while measuring him! This specific swim suit works great, but there are others depending on your needs. One tip I have is to get the swimsuit for your child's current size, not for them to grow into. If it's too big, your child will "sink" into the middle of the floaty part, and the floaty parts will be right in their armpits, which is not super comfortable and might cause them to be too low in the water.

If you end up getting a swim suit like this one, please tag me in a picture or video on Facebook or Instagram! I would LOVE to see your little one floating around. You can find me at @highchairchronicles on both Facebook and Instagram.

You might also want to read this post by Just the Seven of Us: 5 simple ways to keep trips to the pool less stressful. There are several great ideas here that I started following, such as keeping all the swimming suits together instead of in each kid's and parent's closet. They have FIVE KIDS, so if they can make it to the pool stress-free, you can too.

Related article: Mud Kitchen Accessories

And if you think it would be helpful for other parents to know about this type of swim suit, please share this on Facebook or save it to Pinterest:

toddler swimsuit pinterest image

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