Guru Review Lisa and Sophie: Warm In One

 Next week, we see the beginning of the annual Drowning Prevention Week campaign, and to support the Royal Life Saving Society’s aim of reducing the number of drowning and near drowning instances in the UK, we’re cutting all our buoyancy product prices by 15%! Your child can safely learn all the valuable life saving skills needed when splashing about in and near the water at a lower the cost, just use code DPW18 at checkout to redeem. (see below for full T&Cs).

Does my child need to learn to swim?

Simple answer, YES! Over 700 people drown in the UK and Ireland every year and many more suffer injury, some life changing, through near-drowning experience.

“More people die from drowning in the UK and Ireland than from domestic fires or cycling accidents”- source rlss.org 

You can easily protect your child from suffering from the same fate by simply teaching them to swim, either by regularly going to swimming classes or by teaching them to swim yourself. Learning to swim is the best preventative against drowning and the sooner everyone learns to swim the safer we will be.

How to stay safe around the water?  

1. Stop and think; Look for the dangers and always read the signs

   Is there a life guard on duty? Is the environment safe to swim in? Is the environment easily accessible if you need to get help? If the answer is no to any of these questions, just stop and think if this is the best and safest place for you and your family to swim in.

2. Stay together

   There is truth to the saying ‘safety in numbers’, the more of you there are, the more eyes can be watching for dangers and the safer your family will be. It only takes a few seconds for someone, adult or child, to go from happily splashing about to finding themselves struggling. Stay together and stay aware.

3. Stay calm and get help

   If you ever find yourself or your family in trouble when in the water, the most important thing to do is stay calm. Simply float, don’t waste valuable energy thrashing about and struggling against the water, we all have a level of natural buoyancy in our bodies that can keep us above water. Simply float, and reassess how to safely get yourself out of the water.

4. Call for help

   Call 999 or 112 in emergencies and always shout for help so others are aware that there is someone in need of help.

How can I help prevent my child from drowning?

Drowning is preventable and the best way to prevent your child from drowning is to make sure they can swim strongly and confidently.

Here are some very simple ways in how you can help your child become water safe;

1. Take them to swim classes as early as possible.

   There are hundreds of swim schools in the UK that offer fantastic swim classes for babies and children. Use our Find a swim school feature to find your local school- https://www.splashabout.com/swim-schools

2. Swim as a family

   Don’t stop swimming after lessons, taking your child swimming can not only build their water confidence and strengthen their swimming skills but it can also build yours too. We have an entire range of swimwear to help take baby, toddler and children to the pool much easier; from our swim school approved Happy Nappy swim nappy range to our pool and changing products that ease changing room tantrums and can get your baby warm, clean and dry in no time, including our Splash Mat Changing Mats and Apres Splash towelling.

3. Use buoyancy aids to build and strengthen confidence.

   Young children often feel scared when in the water, our range of adjustable buoyancy Floatsuits are designed to support your child when in the water by keeping them in the correct position for swimming. Floats can gradually be removed until your child can swim confidently unaided. All our buoyancy products are currently 15% OFF when using the code DPW18 at checkout.

4. Be aware and understand the water code;

   Stop and think, stay together, float and always call for help (999/112)

The RLSS do an amazing job at keeping everyone safe in and around the water, for more information on how you can keep your family safe or to support the RLSS go to https://rlss.org.uk

*Terms and conditions; 15% off buoyancy products DPW18 code: only valid on buoyancy products. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. UK delivery only. Offer ends at midnight 25/06/18

Shop 15% off buoyancy now>

Guru Reviews- Board Shorts and Short Sleeve Rash Top

Reviewer: Jess Lathan and Woody

6^thNovember 2017

I’ve never received a more adorable delivery than when I opened a parcel containing a tiny pair of board shorts for my tiny little dude. Made from the softest blue fabric and featuring a super sweet turtle design, I knew that these would be well worn on our holiday.

The fabric is UPF 50 which ensures you aren’t worrying about the suns harmful rays whilst your little guy hits the pool. The shorts, teamed with the super sweet short sleeved rash top made the perfect pool side outfit. Again, the UPF 50 fabric provides sensitive skin with the highest level of protection.

Woody looked completely adorable in his Splash About outfit and was so comfortable whilst playing in the sand and by the poolside. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy this set for our next summer holiday.

Guru Reviews- Swimming Costume and Rash Top

Reviewer: Jess Lathan and Nora

6^thNovember 2017

We received the beautiful de birdie print swimming costume and rash top for Nora for our long awaited summer holidays. The pieces fit Nora perfectly and she said they were super comfy to wear.

Not only did the top provide Nora with protection from the suns rays, it proved to be even more useful as a rash top. Poor Nora ended up with prickly heat all over her chest and back due to a high factor suncream and lots of pool time but having the rash top meant we could leave her without the high SPF cream on her itchy parts and allow the rash to calm down without worrying about her getting burnt. It really was so useful for us.

I know when I was a child on family holidays, there wasn’t such an emphasis placed on sun protection but now, it is in the forefront of everyone’s mind. Our children’s skin is so precious and sensitive and having something to use like the Splash About rash top and costume is so helpful to us parents, anything to make us worry a little less is a huge plus in my books.

Featured Products:

Board Shorts Turtle Mania

Rash Top Short Sleeve Turtle Mania

Rash Top Short Sleeve Birdy

Swimming Costume Birdy

Guru Reviews- UV FloatSuit

Reviewer: Isabelle Summers

28^th June 2017

The float suit is incredible! It was absolutely amazing to watch our 20 month old daughter swimming solo on holiday without any fear. She would stand at the side of the pool, jump in, swim to the other side and repeat and would not let me or her father help her!

It is so amazing to see her so independent and confident in the pool and having so much fun too. Definitely a recommended product. In fact, a necessity for all summer holidays!

Featured Products:

UV Floatsuit Flora Bimbi

Guru Reviews- FloatSuit and UV FloatSuit

Reviewer- Jess with Woody and Nora

6^thNovember 2017

No matter how many swimming lessons your children take, no matter how many certificates they earn and no matter how confident they become in water, that nagging doubt you have in your mind about their water safety never leaves. Despite the fact Nora achieved her 50m Swimming certificate at age 4, the idea of her being in and around water for an extended period of time makes me so nervous.

As we were headed off to Mallorca for a family trip this summer and we were staying in a villa with a beautiful private pool, I knew that water safety would be something we would have to address. When the lovely Splash About team sent us two Floatsuits to try out, I knew my worries would instantly be dampened.

The floatsuits feature a revolutionary adjustable buoyancy system which provides your little swimmer with enough buoyancy to keep them afloat, but little enough to ensure that they’re practising their new fangled swim skills in the correct position without relying on the flotation device. The adjustability means you can remove floats to suit your child’s swimming ability as their confidence grows.

These suits were so perfect for Nora and Woody whilst on our holidays. Not only did the buoyancy provide them with that extra pool safety I so desperately hoped for, it also allowed them to practice their swim skills all whilst protecting them from the suns harmful rays with its SPF 50 protection fabric. The zip down fastening made for super easy changing too, which is great when you have two indecisive children with 24 hour access to a swimming pool.

I would definitely recommend the floatsuit to anyone headed off on holidays, and for swimmers and non swimmers alike. They provide a much more comfortable learn to swim method than traditional armbands and they are available in the most beautiful array of patterns.

Featured Products:

UV Floatsuit Turtle Mania 

Floatsuit Garden Birds

Guru Review- UV Sunsuit Turtle Mania

Reviewer: Amy and Eli

21 August 2017

We have had a fab time with the new Turtle sunsuit, Eli's been wearing it in the pool, in the hot tub and in the paddling pool!

Firstly I'd like to start with how easy it is to get on and with an 11 month old little wriggler it can sometimes be a nightmare keeping them still long enough to get them dressed but this just slips straight on and really is a god send for when it's hot as it doesn't chew them up anymore than needed to it does literally just slide on. With having a few different suits we've tried whilst at water babies it definitely is the easiest to put on and off.

The colours are so bright and bold and I think it's definitely best designed for holidays. Our local pool is a little nippy so we found the suit to be a little thin for it. But the pool we do our lessons in is warmer so it's perfect for that but with it's UPF 50 protection and it being so lightweight I bet it's a perfect product for using abroad.

The only negative I would say is that during our lessons we use the double nappy system so Eli has to wear a happy nappy under his swimsuits and because this suit is so lightweight it goes a little see through when wet so he had a bright orange and blue surf board happy nappy showing through his suit. If you had the matching happy nappy it would be ideal though. In our local pool and our hot tub it didn't matter at all though as it doesn't really show the swim paper nappies through it so that's was fine.

All in all another fantastic product and like I said we can't wait to try it on our holidays in a few weeks time!

Featured Products:
UV Sunsuit Turtle Mania

Guru Review- Happy Nappy & BabyWrap Nina’s Ark

Reviewer: Emma Mitchell with Eva

18 April 2018

We absolutely love the Ninas Ark BabyWrap and Nappy Cover! The design is absolutely beautiful and really stands out.

What I’m most impressed by is the fabric quality. It’s unbelievably soft and flexible. The fabric which sits around the waist and thighs on the Nappy fits perfectly without digging in, we have previously used other brand which are so rigid that little legs found it hard to move freely but this was perfect, we had lots of kicking legs throughout the lesson!

The wrap is the same, other brands are much more rigid but this didn’t restrict Eva at all, she was able to carry on jumping in, turning around and climbing out of the pool as easily as she would if wearing just a swimming costume, with the added benefit of being kept warm!

We are officially converted to Splash About, the quality is second to none!

Featured Products:
New Improved Happy Nappy Nina's Ark
Baby Wrap Nina's Ark

Calling all Swim Gurus

Last year saw the start of our extremely successful Guru program where you and your babies become part of the Splash team for a whole swim term.  And what a great team they made. Our Guru’s literally threw themselves in at the deep end and got involved in testing, reviewing and trialling all sorts of Splash About products and we could not be more grateful for the fantastic contribution they all made.
So thank you Gurus!

Images from last year’s gurus

NEW Splash Gurus 2018:

It’s now time to find our new Gurus to join the Splash Lab team. In return for your help in testing products; reviewing products, choosing products, sharing products and images on your social media and generally being completely helpful, we will pay for the cost of a whole terms worth of swimming lessons with a local provider and in addition you will get lots of new Splash About products free for your child.

So if you think you have what it takes; you can write a great review, you love trying out new products, and more importantly have a baby aged between 0-2 years old then we want to hear from you!

To enter:

All you need to do is write a 50-100 word paragraph about yourself, your family and why you think you would make a fantastic Splash Guru.

Send your entry paragraph to guru@splashabout.com with the subject header Splash Guru 2018 entry.

Submissions end on 31^st January 2018. We will announce the 8 winners on our social media pages shortly after.

If we select you as one of the 8 final Gurus we will need you to provide at least 3-4 Splash About product reviews (including pictures) and to share your Splash Guru experience on your social media pages (don’t forget to tag us in too).

We had a fantastic turnout last year and we can’t wait to meet the Splash Gurus of 2018!

As everyone starts this new year afresh, with resolutions made and not yet broken I thought this would be a good opportunity to remind you why those baby swimming lessons are so important and why you could make it a 2018 resolution to get booked in and start Splashing About!

Splash About is the world’s leading supplier of specialist baby swim wear, with the famous Happy Nappy insisted upon by leading swim schools in order to keep pools free from leaks. We work with some of the best and most respected baby swim professionals all over the world. They all agree baby swimming is an essential part of your baby’s development.

Water safety

Drowning is the second biggest cause of accidental death in under 5’s in the developed world. Teaching your child to swim is the greatest life skill you can give them. In the UK there are hundreds of specially trained professionals working in specialist swim schools all over the country, check here to find one closest to you.

It's never too early to start

In the UK, specialist lessons can start from as young as one day old. The NHS guidelines agree that there is no need to wait until your baby has been vaccinated before they go swimming. Although keeping baby warm is essential.

Bonding Kangaroo style; Skin to Skin

Swimming provides the perfect way to have that important skin to skin contact with your baby. These early bonding experiences can help to deeply connect with your child, in ameaningful and calming way. Sharing the swimming experience can be particularly important if baby is unsettled and mum/dad is tired.

Physical and Mental wellbeing

Physical activity and mental stimulation is good for your baby’s physical development, as an added bonus it increases their appetite and tires them out. The water provides a warm and relaxing environment outside of their normal routine, which helps to promote a more calm and contented mood. Swimming lessons provide a great workout for your baby, helping to strengthen their heart, lungs and muscles. It also stimulates the nerves that formulate the senses in the brain.

Good habits

Providing early opportunities for physical activity helps children become habit forming and we know that babies who are more active, tend to be more physical later in life, which can help them to stay fit both physically and mentally into adulthood.

Strength

Physical activity builds muscle strength. Whilst swimming water resistance helps babies use their muscles more efficiently and research has shown that babies who swim regularly, walk earlier than those who haven’t, this more rapid progress if due to better muscle control and core strength.

Structure and routine

Babies and toddlers with good daily routines sleep better and are more prepared for learning activities at school. Early swim routines help them get into the habit of being ready at a certain time each week. Routines also provide a bit of structure and social activity for frazzled parents.

Co-cordination

Research including a Norwegian study show that babies who swim regularly have better balance and grasp objects more intuitively than those that don’t swim. Water activities such as kicking, splashing and floating all aid improved co ordination. In Iceland swimming babies as young as 3 months old are showing standing skills normally only attained by babies of 9 or 10 months old.

Fear of Water

Many non-swimming children develop a fear of water, meaning they never learn to swim, putting themselves and others in danger. Early water experiences allow a child to understand their buoyancy and develop skills that could one day save their lives.

Learning through play

From your first lesson babies will learn for to respond to repetitive and fun commands. Singing songs, clapping hands, splashing faces and many more water experiences increase your baby’s mental skills and their cognitive levels of understanding. So much so that by the time they reach school age studies have shown children who swam in their baby and toddler years, were up to 15 months ahead of non-swimmers in language, counting and problem solving skills.

Citations and references

8. 8. • Professor Liselott Diam – Cologne
      • H Sigmundsson & Hopkins - “Baby Swimming and exploring the effects of early intervention on subsequent motor abilities in childcare, health and development.
      • Diem, Undeutsch, Lehr, Olbrich “Early Motor Stimulation and personal development: A study of 4-6 year old German children”
      • Field T, Scafidi F, Scanaberg S, “Message of preterm Newborns to improve Growth and Development” pediatric nursing
      • German Sports collage cologne “ Baby swimming: Advance independence and Development of intelligence”

I’m not sure where this year went, I think I remember April vaguely, but have no recollection of March or August and now it’s nearly Christmas. Ridiculous!

This has been a huge year for Splash About; I honestly don’t think we could have fitted anymore in.

The Splash Lab completed trials of the new Happy Nappy and Splash Jammers that we had started to develop in 2016 and by May we had launched both new products, which are already award winning and loved by swim schools globally.

I think we’re still traumatized to be honest. We must have measured thousands of chunky baby thighs and milk filled tummies in schools up and down the country, to get the perfect range of measurements for mass production of the new Happy Nappy and Jammers.

And then we made some videos, with lots more babies and toddlers, but that’s not all; we also launched a brand new set of beautiful designs, had a massive casting to choose perfect new babies for our photography, went on location to the windiest beach in the UK, chose our fantastic Guru’s from hundreds of great entries, designed and launched a new website on a whole new platform, built an in-house photographic studio and then fitted in a quick trip to the USA, to give a talk about poo in pools to hundreds of fantastic swimming teachers. Phew!

Actually I can’t really remember September either. Oh wait yes I can, I packed off two of my own children to university and my food bill went down. That was quite a good month.

In addition, our Splash team have fitted in holidays to Australia, Cyprus, Disneyworld, Spain, Italy and Bude.

And now, it’s the end of December we really couldn’t have fitted anymore in at all, it’s been epic. So here are some thankyous.

Thank you to our Gurus – you know who you are, you have been wonderful and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all your feedback and product testing efforts.

Thank you to Tuna fish – Your Videos, your patience, the stunned look on your faces when babies swam underwater. we’ll never forget that.

Thank you Will and Jen at Will Shaddock Photography for all your amazing photography this year. I’ve been promised an on location shoot in hotter climates next year, so get your sun tan cream ready.

Thank you to our fantastic factories, that worked so hard to meet our launch deadlines and then worked even harder when our sales were far higher than our forecasts. We couldn’t do it without you, you are part of the Splash family.

Thank you to our partners all over the world, in 34 countries actually, who have sold and promoted our products all year, from Europe to South Korea, from Australia to Hawaii you have all been fantastic and we salute you.

Thank you to our Splash Teams who have all worked above and beyond all year. Thank you for not even moaning when the experimental “leave work at 3.30 on Fridays” came to an end in September. (don’t worry, we’ll try again next year)

Thank you to the mums, dads and grandparents of the hundreds of babies and toddlers we have measured, prodded, poo inspected, photographed and filmed.  Our products look good because of you and your small person.

Finally Thank you to all the wonderful swim schools and swim teachers all over the world who put their faith in our new nappies and in us. You took the best swim nappy product in the world and simply replaced it with our new version because we said it was better. Your faith in us has been validated, as the new nappy rolled out and has proved to be even more reliable against baby poo leaks.

Now all I have to say is Happy Christmas, have a fantastic family time doing all the things you love, with all the people you care about. See you back here in a couple of weeks. Roll on 2018, we are ready for you!

We’re feeling festive this Christmas and decided to try our hand at baking some Happy Nappy themed gingerbread babies. They make the perfect after swim snack!

They are super easy to make and are ideal for keeping children occupied during the holidays. If they’re baking cookies they won’t be hunting for presents!

Here’s how to make them…

What you’ll need:

• 350g plain flour (plus extra for rolling out)
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 125g butter
• 175g light soft brown sugar
• 1 free-range egg
• 4 tbsp golden syrup

To decorate:

• Icing sugar
• Food colouring
• Cake decorations (optional)

Tools:

• Gingerbread men cookie cutter

READY, SET, BAKE:

1. Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon and pour into a large mixing bowl and stir together using a wooden spoon. Add the butter and blend until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. We found it easier to use our hands rather than a wooden spoon (just make sure any little helping hands are thoroughly cleaned before and after this stage) and then stir in the sugar.
2. Lightly beat the egg and golden syrup together, add to the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix together until the mixture clumps together. Tip the dough out, knead briefly until smooth, wrap in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
4. Roll the dough out to a 0.5cm thickness on a lightly floured surface. Using cutters, cut out the gingerbread baby shapes and place on the baking tray, leaving a gap between them.
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden-brown. Leave on the tray for 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Handy Tip: If your gingerbread babies come out of the oven slightly misshapen or have spread, you can always use the gingerbread cutter again on the baked cookies to reshape them (just remove i.e. eat any offcuts). Be careful not to burn yourself, wait until the cookies are warm (not hot) before you touch them.

6. When cooled decorate with the icing and cake decorations.

How to decorate a Happy Nappy onto a gingerbread baby:  

1. Mix the icing sugar powder with a drop of water (instructions should be on the back of the packet) to a smooth yet stiff consistency. Then pipe an outline of the Happy Nappy onto the gingerbread baby (Tip: If you do not have access to a piping bag, use a small freezer bag, moving the icing to one of the corners and make a small hole for the icing to be piped through). Then leave to dry
2. Mix another batch of icing, this time adding a drop of food colouring (colour optional) once mixed, pipe the coloured icing within the iced outline of the Happy Nappy waist and leg bands.
3. Follow Step 2 again but this time using a different food colour to decorate the body of the nappy.

Leave to dry and then they are ready to eat!

Gluten free version:

What you’ll need:

• 225g rice flour (plus extra for dusting the work top)
• 125g gram flour
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 100g butter
• 175g dark soft brown sugar
• 4 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 egg

To decorate:

• Icing sugar
• Food colouring
• Cake decorations (optional)

Tools:

• Gingerbread men cookie cutter

READY, SET, BAKE:

1. In a mixing bowl combine the flours, xanthan gum, spices and bicarbonate of soda. Mix them thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Add the butter and process again till the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and mix again.
2. Add the golden syrup and egg and stir until the mixture starts to come together. Tip out onto a (rice) floured surface and form the dough into a smooth ball. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
4. Roll the dough out to a 0.5cm thickness on a lightly floured surface. Using cutters, cut out the gingerbread baby shapes and place on the baking tray, leaving a gap between them.
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden-brown. Leave on the tray for 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Handy Tip: If your gingerbread babies come out of the oven slightly misshapen or have spread, you can always use the gingerbread cutter again on the baked cookies to reshape them (just remove i.e. eat any offcuts). Be careful not to burn yourself, wait until the cookies are warm (not hot) before you touch them.

6. When cooled decorate with the icing and cake decorations.

How to decorate a Happy Nappy onto a gingerbread baby:

1. Mix the icing sugar powder with a drop of water (instructions should be on the back of the packet) to a smooth yet stiff consistency. Then pipe an outline of the Happy Nappy onto the gingerbread baby (Tip: If you do not have access to a piping bag, use a small freezer bag, moving the icing to one of the corners and make a small hole for the icing to be piped through). Then leave to dry
2. Mix another batch of icing, this time adding a drop of food colouring (colour optional) once mixed, pipe the coloured icing with in the iced outline of the Happy Nappy waist and leg bands.
3. Follow Step 2 again but this time either using a different food colour to decorate the body of the nappy.

Leave to dry and then they are ready to eat!