When my son became old enough to move out of his inflatable swimming seat we started to buy him arm bands for our regular trips to the swimming pool. We initially had plain orange ones from Zoggs but when it came time to move up a size we allowed him to choose which ones he wanted and he selected these blue sea squad armbands from Speedo.

What are they
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The arm bands are made from laminated PVC the version we have is in blue and features a blue fish on each side of the arm band the fish is in black and white with some white splashes of water. You can also buy it in a light pink color too. Each side of the arm band features the safety valves to blow up the arm bands. The arm bands are suitable for children 2 - 6 years and up to 25kg in weight.

In use
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As my son choose these we didn't have any problem getting him to accept wearing them on swimming trips and I think he just accepts he needs to wear these at present as he always has worn arm bands of some description.

The blowing up of these is easy to do and all you need to is hold the value pressed open with your fingers to stop it going down and then de press the value into the arm band to stop the top getting knocked. Both sides blow up really quickly with no problems at all. What I generally do is blow them half way up to so there is a enough gap in the arm hole to fit his arm through comfortably then blow it up the remained whilst it is on his arm. These arm bands are designed to be worn till a child is 6 years old but I do wonder how tight they would be on a 6 year old as when fully inflated it is a tight squeeze to get them over my 3 year olds arm and he is not a fat child hence where we always blow them up the final bit once on the arm to stop it rubbing against his skin as we push it down his arm.

In the pool the weight of the air in the arm bands is definitely sufficient to keep his head and shoulders above the water and this gives him the confidence to try to swim and to jump in and out of the pool and have lots of splashing fun.

The arm bands remain in place very well and even with my son jumping into the pool they remain firmly on his arms. However there are never any red marks on his skin when we take them off at the end of swimming to indicate that they have been too tight.

There have been a few problems with the sets we have bought. Each of the two sets we have bought have had quite sharp edges on the tips of the arm bands and the corners have been fairly pointy and sharp. This has resulted on at least three occasions either myself or my husband been starched by the arm bands when we have been holding or moving our son around in the pool. The scratches have been superficial but have still actually cut the skin. As they are on my sons arms he is never been caught by these as yet.

On the first pair we bought after about six months of weekly use we started to notice that the thinner PVC area at the base of the arm band where it would meet with the side of my son's body was starting to tear. This small tear that was by the thin selection at the bottom quickly became a full blow tear meaning that my son had to have a new pair. We did buy the same pair again at his request as he likes his blue fishy arm bands and in the twelve months or so of use so far this problem hasn't reoccurred again. However one arm band did develop a puncture from where I am not sure but it no longer holds the air fortunately I hadn't thrown away the good arm band from the first pair so we have now still 2 working armbands.

Overall
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Whilst I have mixed experiences with these arm bands I would still recommend them as my son prefers these to the ring type of arm float. He also finds it easier to move his arms around with these to try to do front crawl and doggie paddle arms with compared to the arm floats. I am uncertain if they would actually fit a 6 year old comfortably and if you have an older child I would recommend trying them on if you can before you buy them. In regular use we have found they last between 6 months to a year per pair and at around £5 a pair at Argos they are not a huge expense. I will continue to buy these despite the sharp corners and risk of scratching as they aid my son swimming and he likes the design.