Customer Reviews

Stearns Infant's/Child's Boating Heads-Up Life Vest

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We use this life jacket at the beach. we got it to go to Hawaii so we could all enjoy the water together and it works great. My son is comfortable in it and has no problem wearing it on the beach and in the water. He can come out in the deeper water with us and we don't have to worry about holding him and up and keeping ourself afloat too. Use it and be safe.

Our 4 month old son (16 lbs) wore this life vest for the last week on a family vacation. I doubt any infant enjoys wearing any life vest, our son eventually resigned to the fact that if we were in the boat, the vest was necessary. The highest buckle (below the chin) was a little constricting, but necessary to hold a baby's face upright if ever int he water. We really liked the simplicity of this vest. Plastic buckles over zippers that we saw on other vests w/ similar weight ranges. We also liked that the vest will work up to 50 lbs. Most of the neoprene vests that we saw only work up to 30 lbs. The only benefit of another style vest for an older, more active (ambulatory) child would be to have a vest w/ a v-neck cut.

According to Stearns, this PFD is good for infants AND children up to 50lb, so it beats all the other options I have seen in size flexibility. I bought a Dora one locally for my daughter 2 years ago, and it still fits. I bought the blue one from Amazon this week for my infant son. They both are made fine for a basic life vest, and they help save a little money, since in theory, the kids can use them until ~50 pounds. Stearns is a well respected company, so I trust their weight rating system is pretty accurate.

No life vest will fit an infant perfectly comfortable, so adult judgment needs to be used on how long to keep him or her out on the water.

This is precious. My kids are boaters. Wakeboard every weekend. Bought this as a gift when they first learned they were having a baby. Though I doubt they will take their baby out in the boat out this year, nice to have this on hand. It's very well made and looks very durable. Like that it has the "heads up" feature. Kind of doubt that it would fit a child smaller than 20 lbs, but maybe.

Life jacket is great and seems to fit okay, and we were only using it for emergencies anyway. So when we actually tried to float our 14 month old son in our pool, it seemed like he was floating REALLY low, and I don't know if it would keep him appropriately afloat for any long period of time.

We purchased this life jacket for my daughter when she was only 6 months old. She is almost 2 and a 1/2 and it still fits because of the adjusting cords. She is tall in the 70th percentile too. Our daughter can swim in the life jacket and it does not ride up on her and we use it for boating too.

We purchased this vest for our one year old son who weighed about 20 pounds. The jacket adjusted to his size easily and was quite comfortable for him. It was purchased for use on a beach trip and was worn often. It worked well in heavy waves and provided excellent support.

In all my research I found that most of the vests are rated up to 30 pounds at which point you would need to get the 30-50 pound rated vest. With my grandson weighing 27 pounds at present, I was reluctant to get a vest that would soon be outgrown. This vest is rated up to 50 pounds so bridges the gap. I was concerned that the fit might be bad since it covered a broader range than most. That is not the case, the vest fits him well and there is plenty of room for him to grow into. It is apparently comfortable too as he never complains about it rubbing his neck. We use it for canoeing and when he is exploring along the banks. A well designed quality product at a reasonable price.

This is a really nice product, however, take note!
This item is very small. Smaller than I expected!
I had to buy the next size larger for my 18 month old.

This jacket fits my 3 yr old well. He is at the upper end of the weight range it is designed for. It fits him comfortably and he is free to move around in it. He has used it at the beach, pool, and boating. I like that it has the head floating part because me son loves the water, but tends to panic if he can't touch the floor or someone else. While he is a strong 3 yr old and has complete head control, when he panics I could see that without the heads up feature he would end up swallowing water or worse without it if there were a boating accident.