Swimming in a salt water pool

Over Labor Day weekend we were fortunate to take baby swimming in our friend's salt water pool.  Our child is a pisces, and my wife and I both love swimming and water, so we've been pleased to find that so does baby.  Up until now he's only been swimming in a small pool that's meant to be a travel bath; it's about 2 feet by 3 feet and folds up into a handy size.  It's worked so far but it can be hard on the back to be hunched over holding him up as he kicks and splashes.  Swimming in a big pool was much more fun - and easier - for me.

Over the course of the summer we've done a lot of research about swimming in the ocean, swimming in chlorine or saltwater pools, and everything concerning a 4 - 5 month old baby swimming.  Babies shouldn't be in chlorine; it can lead to asthma and respiratory problems among other things.  The major problem with taking a baby into the ocean is the temperature.  A baby younger than 6 months is still learning to regulate their body temperature, and swimming in the ocean can cause baby's temperature to fluctuate dangerously.

The pool we swam in has a retractable cover that keeps the heat in overnight; all day the pool is heated by the sun and keeps most of the heat overnight.  This is the new trend in heating pools, with covers that can be manually spread or motorized ones like this.  It keeps the pool at a comfortable temperature without wasting gas or electricity to heat it.

We got some swim diapers, and the only ones available at Buy Buy Baby (Huggies or Pampers) didn't come in a size any smaller than 16 pounds.  They were for children from 16 to around 30 lbs., and baby just made the cut weighing in at a little more than 16 pounds.  Next year we'll buy some reusable ones, but this year we went with disposables since we only needed them for this weekend.  When he's not swimming in someone else's pool he goes "au natural," but next year he'll be able to swim in the ocean and a chlorinated pool so he'll have more opportunity to use them.  I'd like to delay his swimming in a chlorine pool as long as possible but it might be hard to disappoint him when faced with one.

Baby loved swimming, and it was fun to hold him and actually move him along as he kicked.  He got his face in the water a little by mistake, and was sticking his tongue out possibly to taste the water.  He didn't fuss at all, and after a while my wife had to tell me that he had probably been in long enough.  Just like his Dad, who is usually the last one out of the pool.

My wife's brother gave us a camera similar to the one above, a 14 megapixel Panasonic Lumix camera; the camera is waterproof to 10 ft and shockproof to 5 ft, perfect for taking pictures of children.  Perfect for having around children as well, since it would take a concerted effort to destroy this camera.  The doors where the battery and data card go have slide locks so they can't accidentally be opened and rubber gaskets that keep the water out, but of course they have to be kept clean to keep the water out.  As long as you keep them closed nothing really gets in.  Only once ever have I found water around the inside of the door, shortly after taking it underwater and discovering that I must have forgot to slide the lock closed.  I dried it out without turning the camera on and it was fine.

We got some great underwater pictures, but baby can't swim underwater yet so the coolest ones were taken of his face through the distortion of the surface of the water.  The camera is pretty cool, and now that I'm over the fear of a waterproofing malfunction I can't wait to use it when he can actually swim underwater.