Baby Buoyancy

[thomshap]

Having spent most on the summer at home with a new baby we are keen to get the boat out for a day or so before it gets too cold for the Mrs to go any were near water.

Does anyone know of any buoyancy aids or the best way to to keep a two month old safe if anything were to go wrong, we will not be venturing out of Chichester harbour untill next season but we'd like to be on the safe side.



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[Sumomo]

I have a life jacket for my son, who is three months old.

It's a Plastimo brand and designed for 3-10kg.

I've never thought of life jackets as "cute" - but this one is.

It is a perfect top class lifejacket - in miniature - complete with retroreflective tape, crotch strap and whistle...not that he'd have a clue about blowing into the whistle.

He's only been on the boat once, but seemed happy enough in it.

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[Ruffles]

There's something called a "Cosalt Crib" for babies. It's only designed to be put on in an emergency though. Until they are crawling you only need to strap them onto the boat. Thats the theory anyway.

Rob.

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[bedouin]

I bought the Cosalt Crib when we took our new born aboard last season (well he was actually 3 weeks old before he went aboard).

On reflection I think it was a waste of money. I would probably been better going for the smallest conventional buoyancy aid instead - although I don't think they are really appropriate until they get to 6 months +

If you are not venturing outside Chi harbour - what sort of eventuality are you envisaging that might require such a device?

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[DepSol]

We bought Phoebe the Baltic baby life jacket and it fit her well. Its easy to put on and sems to be good. Got a good review in one of the mags recently.

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<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.soltron.co.uk>the website</A>

 

[William_H]

As I see it you have two possibilities of the new baby going in the water. The first is in transfering the baby to the boat from a jetty or dinghy and secondly of the boat sinking. ( possibly also someone cradling the baby and droppin it into the water. (unlikely) The most important thing is to keep mother happy nothing else really matters. You might discuss a net over the crib or baby basket and bouyancy around the outside of the basket so that the basket will float. Point out the precedence with Moses about 4000 years ago. I feel that a lifejacket for baby would be difficult as they don't like them and it would get in the way when changing it and would stop the baby from relaxing and sleeping.
Of course as it gets older it will need a life jacket and it is time to start checking out the Car boot sales for small jackets. They don't use them fotr long before they have grown out of them so keep a look out. I found that mother became very protective and tended to want to run the whole show because she was the mother and there for knew best about every thing which causes problems when sailing and you want to be the captain. I still have problems and the youngest is 23. It's just a thing that happens with motherhood. The baby will be no problem at that age. I can only assure you it is normal and things will get better in a few years. Just let mother decide it is easier. regards will

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[dralex]

Our baby is now six months old and has been afloat since the age of 8 weeks. We bought a crewsaver baby life jacket, but it's only ever going to get used as she gets mobile or if we had to abandon the boat. The best thing we've found is a car seat restrained by a lee cloth. The seat is supportive and gives insulation and is a lot easier to carry than a baby in a lifejacket. It's also good for feeding if you're using bottles or when you get around to weening. The difficult part for the mum is breast feeding- helps if you can lie down. We've actually found baby on boat very easy, including a 20day cross channel trip. I'm nore worried about when she starts to get mobile. The other great thing to have is one of the curved changing mats from mothercare- it wasn't made for maritime use, but could have been- it enables easy changing even when healed! PM me if you want to know more of what we've learnt.

Regards

Alex

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[thomshap]

Thanks for all the response, the main reason for having some a buoyance is to keep the Mrs happy, and now she has read all the replies, she now seems more confident about taking the baby out, as the weather looks calm and sunny this weekend we could even make a weekend of it, but I reckon that could be pushing it a little. The only other thing I have to figure out is how to keep the dog from slobbering all over baby!

Thanks again

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[Avocet]

Hello, Mrs Avocet here....having had plenty of experience of breastfeeding the Avocet fledglings whilst at sea I was interested in your comments. I've never found it a problem whilst sitting in the leeward bunk, but it can be tricky on the windward side. Need to make sure that the skipper gives me plenty of notice when preparing to tack!
A great help is a sling..... I don't mean one of those things that holds baby on your chest that you need a small army to fasten all the buckles on, which I found quite useless on dry land, never mind afloat....a "proper" sling that you can actually lie baby down in and feed. I've got a "huggababy" (www.huggababy.co.uk) but there are quite a few similar types of thing on the market. Avocet tells me that I look like an ageing hippy whilst wearing it, but has to admit that it's one of the best things we've ever bought! Very simple to use, you can carry a baby from newborn to about 3 years old in a variety of positions, and holds them very comfortably whilst feeding, leaving mum's hands free.
Hope that helps.
Mrs Avocet

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[broadcaster]

Hi,

We are on the Hamble and I popped down to Baltic and bought one of their new baby jackets. Our son was about 6 months when we went out, he must have been relaxed as he fell asleep straight away.

It was the dog who needed his life jacket, he jumped off before we got close enough to the pontoon.

Andy

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