Fear of water?

[jojo2324]

I don't know what to do. I know that it's completely normal for little ones to be fearful of water, but I am really bumming out here. Basically, Gannon LOVES his bath. He won't sit down, but he loves to splash around and play and it's great. But suddenly, last week, he became very scared of water coming out of the shower head, the ocean, the bay, and our pool. But he'll still take a bath!

I thought it might be temperature related. But when I took him in the bay (and it was the kiddie section of it, so really two inches of water), which is very warm, he freaked out. When I took him in our pool, he freaked again. Yesterday I gave him a quick shower (all with my hand in front of it so it wasn't too forceful) and he got upset. And then today we went to the ocean and he started screaming when he knocked his bucket of water over onto his leg. So two examples each of warm and cold water, all with the same result.

Are there any ways to combat this, or to make the water more "approachable"? I had really looked forward to our summer on the beach, but now I don't know what to do. He took swim classes this past winter, and it was a heated pool, and he LOVED it. I don't want to force him, obviously, but I don't want him to cry the whole time we're in or near water either. What to do? TIA!!

[egoldber]

Joanne, Sarah did this when we took our "mommy and toddler" swim class this year. Even though she had LOVED the pool last year. What I did was take her in the pool in a water sling. That way she was held very tight to me and she felt more secure. And the sling also made it much easier for me to hold her in the water without any fear of dropping her!

After a few classes of letting her warm up to the water again at her own pace, she was happy in the water again. I think when they get older, they "re-develop" a fear of the water since they are more aware.

HTH,

[brubeck]

At my Mommy & Me swim class last week there was a boy who just screamed and screamed and wouldn't go in. So he sat on his Mom's lap (she was sitting on the steps going into the pool) and screamed while his toes were in the water (rest of the body and foot were out). They gave him some bath toys to play with (dry) and when he was comfy with them Mom showed him how they floated. Of course when he wanted to float them Mom had to move down a step so now he was waist deep in water. That's as far as they got in the half hour class but I thought it worked well.

I have the opposite problem. Amy was ripping herself out of my arms and throwing herself into the deep (read 4 foot) water. I had to pull her up from sudden submerges TWICE.