Infant Life Vest?

New addition to the family, baby girl born March 7th.... can't wait to get her out on the boat. Just curious if any of you have any insight on infant life vests?... Are some styles better than others?

Thanks....

I bought the ONeill Vest for my Son. Born 1/5/07 and I had him on the boat in the vest on 3/4/07. He has been out 2 other times since then and He loves it... I THINK. I chose the Oneill because the neck is a V shape and cuts down further than any other vest we tried. All the other vests come straight across the front and seemed to push more on his neck.

Good Luck

I'm also interested in this as we will have a little one with us come early june.

We have the Liquid Force one just because we were there & it was in front of us. I like the idea of that Oneill one though. My little man acts motionless - kind of like a fat guy in a little suit.

(Message edited by carcrz on April 23, 2007)

I tried two different ones. One was an O'Niell. They were both very uncomfortable for our daughter. The chest area is so think that they little faces barely petrude from the vest. They're designed on the safe side (to roll them over face up in the event they hit the water).

Now that she's a toddler, I'm anxious to try the next stage in vests.

We have two daughters age 2 and 10 months. We have a few different vests for them. They are the neoprene types with the head supports. They hated them at first and it makes it hard for them to sit down. My wife had my oldest start wearing her vest around the house and that seemed to help her comfort level. She is now wearing the next size up and doesn't seem to mind it.

We found that the kidder is a great seller for us.It doesn't rub their chin or neck, and they are really soft.Oh yeah not that expensive.

We bought a hyperlite one for our son and he hasn't minded it at all. Hes great on the boat and theres no signs of anything bothering him. good luck finding "the right one"

"Evolutiuon Sports Products" about $45, works great but all little ones are going to have some discomfort in a life jacket. It does the job.

IMO I wouldn't let my own kid in a boat until they are at least 1 year old. 1st off, no kid knows wtf is going on at that age and the whole experience for them is traumatic... but with a tumultuous home life maybe it's not a problem ;).
I see all kinds of cheap vests that are coast guard approved for infants/toddlers at walmart in the $20+ range. I would also suggest having your toddler get used to it at the house so they don't freak out with the double-shock of riding in a boat AND having that unconfortable thing strapped to them. Not as traumatic as getting your foreskin removed or anything but....

Our 6month old may not know what exactly is going on but he smiles and has a pretty good time in the boat. Ours has a vest much like the one in the picture above, we tried it out while on vacation this winter in a pool and it works great. Comes up floating on his back no matter how he was put in the water and it keeps him upright despite his flailing and splashing around.

he hangs in the boat, watches the both of us ride and really does watch. Stares right at the spot where mom or dad is behind the boat. The wind doesn't bother him at all, the sun is the only thing that gets him.

We had 3 different less than 1 yr olds in the boat last year, no problems, no fussing other than a hungry one every now and then. They love it! They were not scared to death!

Corn holio- you really are a corn hole. My daugter who is almost 2 now, has been on boats since she was 2 weeks old. She was never scared or freaked out, in fact she usually falls asleep in minutes. Now when I grab my wakeboard, she grabs her life jacket and want to go too. It's pretty cute. As far as life jackets and infants just remember that no matter what kind you get it will most likely float them face down. Just be safe and stay close to them.

Very traumatic for them...
(this weekend)




(Message edited by bp22 on April 30, 2007)

Here's a body glove vest, he's only about a week old so it's way too big when it was taken last fall but he fits fine now. It's tight up around his neck but he usually falls esleep after a few minutes.

I think that's the same one we use! I'm ready for the abuse on this one, but he never wears it in the boat! Nor did the kids last summer.

I don't know if it is legal or not but we took an infant car seat (the kind that detaches from the base and also latches into the stroller) and strapped it down with bungies to the observer's seat. He was comfortable and he was normally asleep within minutes. Once he began to walk (around 1 year old) he wanted to walk around inside the boat and then we switched to the head support life jacket. At nearly 2 now, he knows that wearing the life jacket is just part of being on the boat and has learned to accept it.

When it is his turn to drive (not really drive, of course), he loves all the switches and radio controls. Otherwise he sits in the observer's seat and intently watches and waves to the rider.

He loves the water and the boat.

I'm also not sure if Bill's idea is legal but it's pretty dangerous. If your boat sinks with your baby strapped to it, your baby is going to sink too. It's a lot better idea to have someone hold the baby.

Ok I'm gonna put this whole being nice thing to rest in the name of keeping innocent kids from being victims of their parents' stupidity.

Wakeboard boats are no place for infants, and that picture above and that beautiful and fragile newborn baby above should not be in a boat on a lake where accidents happen.

If a family court judge knew what you were doing your a$$ would likely get fried for that... completely unsafe and irresponsible. That's exactly the kind of thing that get a parent declared unfit.

(Message edited by Thedangcorn on April 30, 2007)

Mike, IMO your kids are definitely old enough now to do it safely AND enjoy it, but taking kids out at two weeks is absolutely cornilicious.

Edit, oh and your kids aren't the only ones you put to sleep with your wakeboarding

(Message edited by Thedangcorn on April 30, 2007)

What about places like public city busses, school busses, airplanes where you don't need to buckle kids up at all. Why stop with on the lake?

Accidents happen everywhere, walking down the sidewalk a guy got run over several blocks from my house just last night. You can't make anyone 100% safe, and it's up to the parents what they do in the boat.

Obviously, you can't handle that someone would take a child in a boat. Obviously people do because they make vests just for that. It's up to the parent and is totally a judgement call/opinion.

Some will be completely anti kids in boats, some consider it perfectly fine. I'm of the perfectly fine school but no judge is going to do anything about behind in a boat. There's no law against it.

Corn Holio, I can guarantee you that having a baby in a car is much more dangerous than having a baby in a boat.

By the way do you have kids and choose not to put them in the boat?

I would agree that a child under the age of six months should not be in a boat going at speed (even 20 mph). A child’s brain is still very soft and can not take the jarring of crossing a wake or beating against waves. Also children that small have limited ability to hold their heads up or control quick movements risking injury to their necks.

Once my son was old enough and we thought it was safe to take him along and ride at speed we considered ways to keep him safe. Even at 6-7 months he liked to squirm when being held and hated the life jacket. In an effort to keep him safe and still do the boating that we enjoyed doing we devised the car seat as an alternative. This kept him in a confined place that he could not squirm out of. While it is correct that in the case of sinking it did not provide necessary flotation, we saw this as very small risk on our lake (a 110 acre private lake). As he got older he learned that in order for him to be out of the car seat he had to wear a life jacket and sit in someone’s lap. To date that has worked well for him.

Just last week (at 20 months) I towed him on a tube with mom at 10mph and he loved it. I am going to try the ski skimmer in the next couple of weeks.

I don’t know whether what we did is legal and it is definitely not recommended in large bodies of water or where capsizing may be an issue but it worked for us. It allowed us to enjoy many of the water activities that we love and he seems to love the water as much as we do. At this point he has no fear of the water. (Potential problem that we are trying to solve with swimming lessons.)

Legal Disclaimer: The preceding is not intended to be advice and is not intended to supersede sound judgment taking into consideration the conditions and circumstances.

Cornholio, slow your role son.. You are trippin in a major way..

Quote:"Wakeboard boats are no place for infants, and that picture above and that beautiful and fragile newborn baby above should not be in a boat on a lake where accidents happen"

NEWSFLASH: Like Brooke said above, accidents can happen anywhere at anytime.

If you honestly do not want to take your infant into your boat, that is your call(If you even have a kid). But dont come on here and start blasting people for doing something that is their own decision in the first place.
Nuff Said.

Happy wakeboarding.

My little guy is 7 months old now & his first time out on the water was last weekend. He giggled & squeeled for the first 20 minutes & then fell right asleep. He slept for about 2 hours & then giggled & squeeled some more. He is a natural boater, I can see it already.

Don't get me wrong, my kids will be on the boat at an early age, but infants are very very very fragile. One flop of an infant's neck hitting a wake wrong could cause permanent injury! I'm not talking a 6 or 12 month old or toddlers that are actually quite tough and rubbery human beings... I'm talking helpless and fragile infants.

And for comparisons to driving in a car, I agree. Cars too are not the safest places for newborns, and that's why parents natural instict is to become home-bodies until the kids have developed some natural immunities and aged a few weeks. I don't see infants on the race-track, and it chaps me when they are on the lake with drunken high schoolers.

There is a HUUUUUUGE difference between a newborn and a 6-month old, so my OPINION is to have the maturity to wait it out a bit!

And by the way, I get to have an opinion because I have kids and have yet to bring them with me on the boat.

One other thing that really got me chapped was some lady leaving her infant on the dock alone at a local lake for 20 minutes while she went to park her car about 1/4 mile away (and out of sight). Some people shouldn't be allowed to spawn.

But anyways, the good news is that I've seen far more parents being responsible and creating a fun environment for the kids. As long as people don't go out there and give law enforcement a reason to change the rules (hint hint)we can all continue to have fun.

(Message edited by Thedangcorn on April 30, 2007)