Swimpants help toddler and pool

Splash Planet manager Peran Hutchings shows Archie Blenkhorn, 2, a pair of Huggies swim pants, the keystone of a new initiative. Photo / Warren Buckland

Splash Planet will be one of many pools around the country taking part in a new initiative to keep toddlers safe in clean water this summer.

The Huggies Little Swimmers Swimpants safe water initiative was designed to help keep pool water clean while giving parents an incentive to enrol their toddlers in water-confidence lessons.

Fewer than half the Kiwi toddlers taken swimming were attending such lessons, a Colmar Brunton survey found.

Splash Planet manager Peran Hutchings said complex users were already proactive and the initiative was more a reminder for parents to make sure children were wearing the right swimwear.

He said Splash Planet didn't have a lot of "code browns" which showed customers were already wearing compliant swimwear.

"Anything that improves water quality, water safety, or getting younger ones active around water is great, especially in New Zealand with all our lakes and waterways."

Conducted among 161 mothers of young children, the survey revealed 78 per cent of Kiwi babies were being taken swimming by their parents before they were 3 years old.

Huggies will offer 2500 free pairs of swimpants for swim schools to disperse to parents whose under-18-month-olds could wear them at their first water confidence lesson in term 1.

Plunket child safety adviser Sue Campbell said water confidence lessons were a great way to consolidate learning about how to be safe in water for both children and their parents.