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Infant Life Jacket?


Broke Amigo

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My little girl is now a month old and I need to get her a life jacket for excursions on the boat in the near future! Thumbup.gif

I'm looking for a neoprene infant vest. Online I have found a few and wondered what you guys have used.

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Congratulations on the new baby. Since you're getting ready to take her on the boat, it sounds like everythings going well...

Anyway, the neoprene infant vests are the way to go. One thing we did was to "remove" a little of the flotation around the neck/chin area, as it can get a little binding. (This was suggested on this site by another member, and it worked great)

Just cut the vest at the seams, cut out some of the flotation, and resew. She'll be a lot more comfortable, and I'm sure she'll still float.

BTW, we put our daughter in the infant swimming course on her first birthday. It took 8 weeks, 10 minutes a day, 4 days a week and she can now "swim". I would recommend this course for anyone with a baby that spends alot of time around the water. By swim, I mean if she falls in water, she knows how to get to a floating position on her back, breath for a few seconds, flip over and kick for three seconds, get back to the back, and repeat the process until she finds something to grab on to. It is amazing.

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We never tried the neoprene infant vests but they look a lot more comfortable than the regular vest.

Just as important, keep that little one out of the sun. Their skin isn't ready for the intense sun and I don't think doctors recommend sunscreen for babies under 6 months. I would limit your excursions to the morning and evening when the sun isn't that strong.

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Congratulations on the new baby.  Since you're getting ready to take her on the boat, it sounds like everythings going well...

Anyway, the neoprene infant vests are the way to go.  One thing we did was to "remove" a little of the flotation around the neck/chin area, as it can get a little binding.  (This was suggested on this site by another member, and it worked great)

Just cut the vest at the seams, cut out some of the flotation, and resew.  She'll be a lot more comfortable, and I'm sure she'll still float.

BTW, we put our daughter in the infant swimming course on her first birthday.  It took 8 weeks, 10 minutes a day, 4 days a week and she can now "swim".  I would recommend this course for anyone with a baby that spends alot of time around the water.  By swim, I mean if she falls in water, she knows how to get to a floating position on her back, breath for a few seconds, flip over and kick for three seconds, get back to the back, and repeat the process until she finds something to grab on to.  It is amazing.

We did the same thing but we took it out of the bottom of the vest. This helped when they would sit down so it would not push up so far. It also still provide good flotation.

Look for a vest with narrow shoulder straps. Typically this will provide much more room around the neck which makes it much more comfratable.

I totally agree about the swimming lessons very important.

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We used the neoprene vest and didn't remove the head piece and hasn’t been an issue since we don’t bring the kid seat anymore, we just carry him or let him sleep on the seat. I’d suggest a sun suit to cover her up and a hat since you can’t use sunscreen. We had him out on the boat in about 2 months. We had him in swimming lessons at 5 months and he did good and totally agree it’s a great move. Here is my boy last Memorial Day.

gallery_6_8_746256.jpg

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My twin girls will be more than 6 months before we take them out in the spring, but we'll be looking at infant vests too. Any suggestions on brands or places to get them?

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when we put our infants into a new life jacket we carefully put them into the pool to make sure we were jake. you may go through a few iterations but you have to get it right. i would not trust anything until i see it work and know i can rely on it.

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I would definitely spend the extra money and purchase a neoprene infant vest, my first child had a normal infant vest he he hated to wear it so when my last child was born I purchased the neoprene vest and all I can say is it was worth all the money I spent and then some. My little guy never complained about having the vest on.

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We used the neoprene vest and didn't remove the head piece and hasn’t been an issue since we don’t bring the kid seat anymore, we just carry him or let him sleep on the seat.  I’d suggest a sun suit to cover her up and a hat since you can’t use sunscreen.  We had him out on the boat in about 2 months.  We had him in swimming lessons at 5 months and he did good and totally agree it’s a great move.  Here is my boy last Memorial Day.

gallery_6_8_746256.jpg

yo Mdude - are those your pretty pink toes in the pic?

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We used a neoprene tadpole jacket but also had a beanbag made fron wetsuit material for her to sleep in when she was a baby.Great advice with the learn to swim thing our daughter is now 6 swims 4 different strokes and just won her division in the local wakeboard comp under9 subjunior girls. :lol:

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We used a neoprene tadpole jacket but also had a beanbag made fron wetsuit material for her to sleep in when she was a baby.Great advice with the learn to swim thing our daughter is now 6 swims 4 different strokes and just won her division in the local wakeboard comp under9 subjunior girls. :lol:

Congtratulations! Hopefully a AUS #1 one day.

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Go neo if they fit good. We found a "regular" jacket that fit better than the neo so that is the route we went. We also had our girl in swim lessons ASAP. She will be 3 next month and she is a regular fish. She is swimming w/ her head under water now. The only downside to this is that she has to be the first one in the water. :Doh:Thumbup.gif

Start you kids out in the water (and on the boat) early and they will love it because they feel comfortable.

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Just as important, keep that little one out of the sun.  Their skin isn't ready for the intense sun and I don't think doctors recommend sunscreen for babies under 6 months. 

I would agree that avoiding intense sun with any kid (especially under a year) is the best idea. We know a lot more than when WE were kids, and skin cancer is going to continue to be HUGE for so many of us that were so exposed as kids.

If you ARE going to bring your kids out and they will be in the sun anyway, it's better to use sunscreen even if they are under 6 months.

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My boy was born in late May and I would say we had him out on the boat 55 out of the 75 hours we put on the engine, over the summer. We have the Oniell Neoprene for him that goes up to 30lbs, but it is already starting to look small. He is probably close to 20 lbs now. and almost 5 months old. A little Tank.

If you don't have a Bimini, get one, that thing is a life saver (literally). Make sure you have your little one try one on to see if it fits his/her body type, that makes a huge difference.

Edited by jefe
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  • 8 months later...

We just ordered one of the Inversion infant neoprene life jackets for our little one. It showed up over the weekend and we thought we'd see how it fits. Very impressive design, I'd highly recommend it.

Gracie_061906%20001.jpg

Gracie_061906%20002.jpg

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However when they get a bit older they hate wearing it....lol

At 3.5 my daughter is sill good with it....the key it to geta comfortable one and make it a happy thing.

The other two things that are a MUST until they can swim are a crotch strap and a collar handle.

The Inversion my daughter now wears looks just like the one above, but bigger and with out the extra part for keeping the head up (not sure what that is called.) But is still has the handle.

When we went to the boat show this year they were giving away vests (cheapies) and she insisted on wearing the entire day for climbing around in the boats.

She also will stop dead in her tracks before going on a dock, as she knows she is not allowed in a boat or on the dock without a vest.

Biggrin.gif

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However when they get a bit older they hate wearing it....lol

My son has never even blinked about wearing his.

A few tidbits from experience:

We've never had him wear a neoprene while riding in the boat. He gets too hot as it is.

Some of his vests have been altered for comfort. When he was old enough to be in the water, swim/kneeboard/skim/drag from boom, we carried TWO vests. The 'wet' vest was unmodified and worn while in the water. The 'dry' vest was altered slightly and worn while riding in the boat.

Early on, we referred to his vest as a 'boat coat.' As in: You don't go on the dock or boat without your boat coat. Even with it on, he stops at the dock and asks before stepping on. Kinda cool to tell a 4 yo to put on his boat coat and go put the boat down. Biggrin.gif

That infant neoprene in the pic looks like it will chafe the cheeks a bit. Tony, maybe you could post back after some water time with the young one?

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The vest itself is the problem, not that he’s too hot. As soon as we put him in the SPF sun suit with a built in life vest he’s just fine, when we take the vest off, or my little adrenalin junky when we go fast. The problem w/ the built in vest is that it doesn’t roll him over as the Inversion vest does, only keeps him on the surface. It’s just not a risk that we are willing to take to modify a CG approved vest that I know keeps his head up out of the water. He only wears the other vest when we are playing with him directly; maybe we are overly concerned but just can’t be too careful around water. Drowning is the 2nd leading death to kids 2 and under.

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The vest itself is the problem, not that he’s too hot. As soon as we put him in the SPF sun suit with a built in life vest he’s just fine, when we take the vest off, or my little adrenalin junky when we go fast. The problem w/ the built in vest is that it doesn’t roll him over as the Inversion vest does, only keeps him on the surface. It’s just not a risk that we are willing to take to modify a CG approved vest that I know keeps his head up out of the water. He only wears the other vest when we are playing with him directly; maybe we are overly concerned but just can’t be too careful around water. Drowning is the 2nd leading death to kids 2 and under.

You can't be overly concerned with little ones around water. Comfort takes a very distant second to safety. We used to shorten our day on the water if the kids (under 3) became too hot or uncomfortable in their vests. It could be inconvenient but it was way better than the alternative.

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The vest itself is the problem, not that he’s too hot. As soon as we put him in the SPF sun suit with a built in life vest he’s just fine, when we take the vest off, or my little adrenalin junky when we go fast. The problem w/ the built in vest is that it doesn’t roll him over as the Inversion vest does, only keeps him on the surface. It’s just not a risk that we are willing to take to modify a CG approved vest that I know keeps his head up out of the water. He only wears the other vest when we are playing with him directly; maybe we are overly concerned but just can’t be too careful around water. Drowning is the 2nd leading death to kids 2 and under.

You can't be overly concerned with little ones around water. Comfort takes a very distant second to safety. We used to shorten our day on the water if the kids (under 3) became too hot or uncomfortable in their vests. It could be inconvenient but it was way better than the alternative.

Isn't the water there for cooling off?

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