A 2-yr-old toddler was going for his first skydive with his father yesterday, but his parents had decided to cancel because of "too much media hype."

Auckland's Aaron Marriott said he and his wife, Elizabeth, had decided to let their son Elijah take the skydive with him because their elder son Kobe had done it the previous year when he was only three years old and the kid was thrilled about the experience.

Mr Marriot has been in the skydiving business for 16 years now, running his own sports firm, Blueskies Skydiving.

However, when news of him taking his 2-year-old to the extreme sports circulated in the media, experts raised objections, saying skydiving was too dangerous for a toddler.

On Thursday morning, Mr Marriott told APNZ the jump had been cancelled because there was "too much media hype."

Asked whether Elijah would skydive when he is older, Mr Marriot did not comment to APNZ.

Mr Marriott earlier said his boys were not unfamiliar to the sport, and as such, they were different from other children.

"They've seen hundreds of jumps and to them, it's normal," he said, adding, "I don't think I would take any other person's child ... It's just something special I can do with my boys."

APNZ spoke to skydiving expert Wendy Smith, who has been a skydiving expert for over 20 years. She said she was a good friend of Mr Marriott, but she strongly objected to the idea of a very young toddler skydiving.

"We have to be very careful in the sport with letting very young children [go]," she said, adding, "They still have a problem with structuring and growing of their brains. The freefall and the opening can cause quite a radical shift of the cerebral fluids."

Ms Smith had taken tandem skydiving with young kids, but the youngest she has ever jumped with was four years old.

A doctor at the Starship children's hospital in Auckland said skydiving was not for two-year-old kids.

Developmental paediatrician Dr Rosemary Marks, who is also the president of the Paediatric Society, told APNZ Elijah was "still developing" and too young to understand skydiving. She added parents should "know what is appropriate for children and what is not appropriate."