With my first born I made an effort to go to those Mommy and Me type of swim classes where you take your 9 month old to be social. And well hope to meet other moms that have similar interests. All the while, you are in a 20 minute class with 5 other moms and your baby trying to listen to the instructor, but having to wait for one of the moms from giving instruction to her other children in another swim class just 30 feet away. Although, looking back at that moment and where I am today. She’s probably was stressed out in managing multiple children.
Things To Consider When Swimming With Little People
One of the requirements I started noticing in our community pool and with swim instructor companies is the requirement of swim diapers to be worn. Although, the difference between the two is typically the instructor companies have the classes set to be less than 30 minutes. Whereas when you are at a community pool, private pool or at a water park you are in recreation mode.
Before my twins were born we used to go swimming all the time. My son Corban loves the water. We used both types of swim diapers and there is no doubt he peed in both. There was a few times that I would hear complaints from people saying that the community pool was shut down due to a dirty diaper that had feces in it. Which of course many would naturally be inclined to be upset with it. However, I just presumed that the disposable swim diaper if worn would keep the feces in just as much as a reusable swim diaper. And it was also recommended to have them in the children’s pool only. Of course, people have a tendency to believe that it wouldn’t happen to them.
It wasn’t until a recent outing with my children that we visited Grandma to go swimming that changed my entire outlook in swimming with little people.
My son is potty trained, but my two and a half year old twins are not. All wear swim jackets over their bathing suits. Normally it is best to always check their disposable swim diapers every 20 to 30 minutes. Of course, on this particular day. Hours went by in us having fun. It wasn’t until the later of the second hour that I started smelling a sewage smell or the odor that you would smell from fresh landscaped soil. One of my daughters kept getting in and out of the pool to jump in. That’s when I noticed a dark ring that was near her bottom. Followed by the leafy-like debris on her legs did I see that she had a bowel movement. I immediately held her from jumping into the pool again and gave direction for everybody to get out of the pool.
I will spare you the details of getting her cleaned up. But it really got to me. I was really disgusted and felt an enormous guilt that I wasn’t paying attention. I should have checked her disposable swim diaper.
Is The Pool Contaminated?
My belief is that when you swallow water that has been contaminated by feces that you will get sick. When you swim with anyone you run that risk in general, because of the germs that the public carries. I normally do not dunk my head under the water when swimming with others. Others may get skin rashes, swimmer’s ear, diarrhea, vomit or respiratory illness. Of course you may swallow by accident. Even in small amounts you can get ill.
What Should You Do In Case of Feces?
It’s best if you are swimming in a community pool or public water park to inform the staff so that they can follow procedures in treating the pool for the next 26 hours with chlorine. If you have a salt water pool it is important to act immediately to shock the pool and not allow swimming until it reaches a certain ph level.
Lesson Learned About Swim Diapers
After my children have used reusable swim diapers and disposable ones. I would say that it doesn’t really work. I’m not spending another dime or would gift them to anyone. There are so many cons to the product. If your child pees the pee is being absorbed by the disposable diaper along with the water. The intent of both swim diapers is to prevent solid waste from escaping. However, neither are leak proof. If your child has diarrhea it will come out of the swim diaper. Yes the reusable swim diaper leaks. So if your little one has pooped and peed. Eventually, it will leak out – both the pee and content. Regardless how tight the fabric is are around their legs.
Potty Training Is Now In Session
After that episode, I have started the process of potty-training my daughters. I have always heard that girls are much easier to potty train than girls. We shall see if that is true in our family.
Poop happens. Challenges that makes life interesting and how to overcome it.