Pool etiquette

[fitzperry]

My daughter just turned 3 has been potty trained for a year and a half. We own a pool and still wear a swim diaper. Little kids wait until the last minute to let you know they 'have to go' when they are having fun. I'd rather be out a few bucks than feel warm water run down my leg. Gross!

But swim diapers are not absorbent--that's kind of the point of them, in fact. If they absorbed urine, they would also absorb the pool water (and then wouldn't have any room to absorb urine). Whenever one of my kids urinated in a swim diaper when out of the pool, a good portion of it ran down her leg anyway. The purpose of swim diapers is to contain a bowel movement, which as someone else mentioned, they don't do very effectively under certain circumstances.

 

[Disneyhappy]

You can not guarentee a toddler will not poop in the pool but you can guarentee that is will not float around the pool by putting a swim diaper on them. While children may be potty trained, having the skill to leave the pool when you need to go to the bathroom takes even more skill and comes later (and sometimes, much later if ever!). I handled this when my child was younger by keeping a swim diaper on him until he was about 3 and then taking regular potty breaks (making him get out of the water for a brief period) My son is 7 now and I can pretty much guarentee you that he will not go poop in the pool!

I just observed a grown woman at the Philadelphia airport who did not make it to the bathroom and pooped in her clothes running to the bathroom. It was a sad situation and I tired to help this stranger the best I could while others just watched away. My point is that there is no guarantee for anyone not to have an accident, even though the possibility is remote. I believe we need to have enough respect for parents who make that judgment call for their own children. They would know better than a stranger whether their child needs to be in a swim diaper. I get upset with parents who let their children in the pool without swim diapers, knowing their children are still prone to accidents. That is just wrong! Yikes - what a yucky thread!

 

[Melrosgirl]

LOL, these threads kill me! Yeah, we learned the hard way that swim diapers don't hold urine. On vacation last year, I forgot to change DS out of his swim diaper (he wore it at the beach and never went into the water). We then went from the beach to the movies. At the movies, ds sat on dh's lap. Within 30 minutes, dh says to me "umm, did you take the swim diaper off?" I said, no, why? "Because I have pee on my leg." Oops.

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

If you are worried about health and hygiene, I'd avoid the pools. Numerous people don't follow the rules and many times the resort doesn't enforce them either. I've seen too much gross stuff - I look at public pools and see sesspools.

See for YEARS I thought of pools as big public toilets. Then I started going in when we first went to Vistana Village. Since it was opening week there were VERY few people in the pool. In fact the most that were in the pool at one time was 5! So I decided to go in. I had NEVER in my life gone in a pool before. Since then I have been in the pool at VV and at Vistana Resort total pool visits in my life maybe 10! After reading this thread I do not know if I can do it again!

I must say that when I see a small child get in ....I make my family get out. I do not care how well a parent says a 2 year old is trained. I think kids under the age of 4 should not be in public pools both for their sake (they drink the water) and for the sake of the public.

 

[delilah]

I'm glad we made it through the swim diaper age without proving to ourselves that they won't absorb urine. Didn't ever have the opportunity to prove they didn't contain poop either.

 

[Freyja]

dh= darling husband, you might want to rethink that one.

I´m sure she meant what she wrote: DH.

I understand her statement completely. She was trying to point out that she could never guarantee that her child wouldn´t poop in the pool but then again she couldn´t guarantee that her husband wouldn´t do it either.

 

[notnothin]

I´m sure she meant what she wrote: DH.

I understand her statement completely. She was trying to point out that she could never guarantee that her child wouldn´t poop in the pool but then again she couldn´t guarantee that her husband wouldn´t do it either.

If we have husbands doing this in the pools, oh boy, we really have a problem!

 

[jennbug]

If we have husbands doing this in the pools, oh boy, we really have a problem!

If my husband did this I would just walk away. I do not know this man...

 

[Breezy_Carol]

We were at one of the All Stars and a boy about 5 told his parent he needed to use the bathroom. Said parent pointed him toward the bathroom but never got out of the pool. Child came back because he couldn't find it. Parent still wouldn't get out of the pool. Child ended up getting back in the pool. We left.