my 6 yo only ever clung to the wall of the swimming pool. the day she put on this suit she started paddling around for the 1st time, with minimal encouragement from me to make that transition. a wk later she put her head in the water for the first time. a few days later she started jumping into the pool. at this point, she was a proficient "swimmer" while wearing the floaty suit. maybe 3 wks after receiving the floaty suit, she announces she wants to wear a normal suit now. puts one on, gets in the pool, uses all the skills she learned while wearing the floaty suit, except now she has no flotation device on at all. and she can still do it. she can swim. in a nutshell, on 8/2/09 she was happily and confidently using a floaty suit (for only about 2-3 wks). on 8/9/09 she went to the Y pool and took a swimming test for which she jumped in, bobbed up, and swam 75 feet in deep water without ever touching the bottom or edge. she didn't pass because her dog paddle stroke didn't pass muster, but the distance she covered was still amazing. I can't recommend this suit enough. it is a huge confidence builder
I had a float suit for our 2-yr-old, but I wasn't happy with it because it wasn't keeping her head above water unless we put the blow-up arm floaties on her. The swim instructor at the local Parks and Rec Dept said to look for something that would free up her arms while she was in the water so she would learn to move her arms and her legs. After looking on the internet, i decided on the My Pool Pal suit. It is doing what I wanted it to do. She is able to get in the pool and keep har head above water and move around. Of course this suit is not a life jacket, and she needs to be closely supervised when she is in the water.
As a grandmother with an inground pool, I feel much better about our granddaughters wearing this suit - ages 3 & 4- rather than arm bands. They would take off the arm bands and still want to be around the pool. With the float suit, they are much more safe than with the arm bands. It has given them confidence and they are having a lot of fun keeping up with the older grandkids. Important to remember that even with the float suits - children must be supervised at all times!
My daughter is small for her size, and it is a little big, but that is to be expected, I think it would fit an average size baby fine. The swimsuit 's color is a little brighter than expected. I got the pink one with plam trees. The pink is neon. Overall I can't say if it is a good teaching aid because my daughter is not comfortable in the water yet.
This is a wonderful swimsuit. They run big, so get the smaller size. My 3 1/2 year old used the suit for 2 summers and now my 20 month old is using one. She can swim by herself already. It really teaches them how to control their body in the water to stay afloat. We love it and would highly recommend it.
This is my daughters second pool pal. She used it last year when she was 1yr old and she was swimming all over our pool. Same thing this year. Her head is always above water and it gives her the freedom to learn to swim on her own.
