Which are better for a 3 year old? Life vest or Arm Floaters

[AZMermaid]

I hate floaties! They are dangerous and misleading. They don't allow the child to be in the proper position to swim and can slip off, pop, etc. I don't use anything with my kids except my hands. They can swim away from me when they can swim. DS4 has had two years of lessons and can swim indepentantly now and DD2 is in my arms playing. Period. If we go to a lake or in a boat and they will just be splashing at the shore, they wear a CGA life vest. At the beach they don't go on the water without me so we don't use anything yet.
Vests are cheap and effective if used correctly.

I am wondering if it is somewhat of a regional thing. Looking at responses here, a lot of the floatie/ vest/ puddle jumpers are from colder climates where they kids probably don't swim as much. Here, you hardly ever see a kid over 4 with any sort of floats on because they can all swim and are doing summer swim team by 5 years old, and probably a quarter of kids start at 4. That involves being able to swim whole laps. Everyone has pool parties for birthdays May-Sept and I can not imagine a kindergartner in floaties.

 

[WantToGoNow]

I think between my kids I have used everything. I bought him a life jacket with a strap between the legs and he learned to swim that way. I put that same vest on my dd when she was 2 and found her floating face down - she just couldn't keep her face up out of the water. I bought her one with the removable float pieces and she sunk - with all of them in place. I bought her a different style of lifejacket and she sunk. I bought her something that looked like a swim ring with a swimsuit built in - she called it her "stay up" and it kept her entire upper body above the water. At 4 I tried the life jacket again and she could stay up but still didn't like it - instead we went with the speedo arm floaties - they are material not plastic and hard to get on her arms - I couldn't imagine them coming off. This summer she discarded those and swims pretty much on her own - she is still never out of eyesight.

 

[my3sons77]

I believe that you use what YOU feel best for your child.


Everything will work different on every child. Just because the majority here says that they use vests only, does not mean that that particular vest will work great with your child. Just because the majority here says that arm floaties fall out, does not mean they will fall off of your child.

Watch other kids your childs age, see what they are using and see how well it works for them, know your child swimming habits and go from there.

Personally vest only does not work for my youngest (I posted only saying I use both armies and vest).

 

[jodifla]

I am wondering if it is somewhat of a regional thing. Looking at responses here, a lot of the floatie/ vest/ puddle jumpers are from colder climates where they kids probably don't swim as much. Here, you hardly ever see a kid over 4 with any sort of floats on because they can all swim and are doing summer swim team by 5 years old, and probably a quarter of kids start at 4. That involves being able to swim whole laps. Everyone has pool parties for birthdays May-Sept and I can not imagine a kindergartner in floaties.

Yes, I think this is true. When you live someplace like Florida, where almost the whole year is swimming season, it changes how seriously you take swimming. The initial swim lessons I took my son to in Michigan were a total joke compared to the ones in Florida, which were serious business and continued on even if a child was crying.

It took some hunting to find a swim school that was actually accredited and had a clue about how to teach young kids to swim.

 

[pixiedust1st]

I have 3 girls. They have always used the Arm Floaties, but we also have a boat and I happened to find a Lifevest (actually a real lifevest rated to use on a boat) at Walmart this last summer that you slide your arms into like floaties and then it has a band (not just material, but a thick band made out of the life vest materials) around the chest that fastens in the back so that it can't come off. It has been wonderful for our now 4 1/2 yr old and she loves it. The life vests always seem to want to ride up and are so bulky when in the water that she really loves this one. Hers is yellow w/ a duck face on the front, they had different animals and colors then also. Haven't paid any attention this summer if they still have them but it is great! Hope this helps!

 

[stampwithamy]

We preferred the Speedo life vests (got ours at Target). They seem to have more mobility and they feel more secure in the water.

 

[clairemolly]

We do a lot of boating on Lake Cumberland in Kentucky, and no one, including myself, gets in without a life vest. It is way too deep and the undercurrent way too strong to take a chance. In the pool however, I have never put anything on my girls. We stay right with them or hold them and encourage them to swim as they have been learning in swim lessons. If I were to use anything in a pool, the only thing I would use would be something that is USCG approved.

My DH and I have been thinking of getting one of the puddlejumpers that have been mentioned for our 2.5 year old for when she is swimming in the lake. She is still small enough to be in an infant life vest but is frustrated when trying to swim because it pulls her on her back. I will however keep her in the infant one while the boat is in motion as I feel safer in the even that something happened and she was thrown from the boat.

 

[Magpie]

Northerner, here! Neither of my children has ever used any kind of flotation device in the pools. I got them into swim classes when they were toddlers, and I depended on close supervision, with both my husband and I watching them at all times, to keep them safe.

That said, my son WAS a confident swimmer when he fell into the pool at 4 years old. He was reaching for a toy, overbalanced, and fell in head first. He was sinking straight down to the bottom when I reached in and pulled him out by the seat of his pants. My best guess was that in his panic he'd inhaled a lungful of water and got confused about which way was up.

We had to start all over with swim lessons after that, because he (sensibly) began refusing to put his head in the water.

I'd go with a life jacket, if you must have something. My kids wear life jackets whenever they go out in a boat, because even excellent swimmers drown when they unexpectedly fall out of boats.

 

[sjsjbrook]

Floaters or water wings are ok for children if you plan to be within arms reach of the child.

The one thing that parents don't think of is that they will only keep your child afloat if they keep their arms below their head.

I once had to save two people from drowning in a public pool. The child was 10 and wearing water wings, the mother was a none swimmer. They went under the buoy line into the deep end. Just as I was going to tell them to return to the shallow end, they both went under.

You would think the child would be ok, Right.

No his heads were above his head, so it sunk under the water. Being a non swimmer, he didn't know enough to put his arms down. He was paniced, his mom was under as well.


So I wouldn't use floaters personally. But if you choose to educate yourself on them and stay with your child. We all have the it will never happen to me syndrome, but what if it did?