Parents of DC who swim a lot

[babysoupdragon2]

My 3 year old swims 3x a week. It's been recommended by her physio as she has severe hyper mobility. She loves it and is a cracking little swimmer.

It's ruining her hair. It's constantly green tinged, and has a synthetic texture. I use leave in conditioner and wet it before she swims but it's getting worse. Currently won't keep a hat on.

She can sometimes get red, dry eyes, despite wearing goggles.

Any product recommendations?

Do you have a better pool near you?

We have one that’s a special pool for kids that has no chlorine. They use UV light treatment and a high turnover of water filtering.

And that sounds fancy but I live in a pretty shitty town so depending where you are there might be one.

DD is 3 and usually swims twice a week.

After swimming I tend rouse my fancier Moroccanoil shampoo on her instead of standard kids stuff, which is habit more than anything but her hair seems fine.

Not an easy solution, but I really notice a difference in chlorine levels between our usual pool (which is attached to an old peoples home!), and the council one which is really chemically. Less chlorine makes a massive difference to hair/ skin / swimming consumes.

Clarifying shampoo - there are some chlorine specific ones that work well. V gentle body wash and always moisturise soon after, doublebase or similar for dry skin. For especially dry patches, baseline or similar before you get into the pool. Try other goggles, “proper” ones like Speedo or similar

Check the dry skin isn't fungal infection as I have just discovered with my frequent swimmer 🤦🏻‍♀️

Recommend 8 hour cream when it's not fungal
But may be too strong for a 3 year old!

There is a UV pool near us but it is too cold for her (even with a wetsuit on.) She can't regulate her body temperature too well.

I've just googled clarifying shampoo- are there any you'd recommend?

Make sure that you wet her hair with fresh water before entering the pool. That way her hair absorbs the non/ chlorine water rather than chlorinated.

as others have said her a clarifying or cleating (not sure that is the spelling) which will remove the chlorine build up. Chlorine coats the hair.

does she wear a swimming cap? That does offer some protection.

you can use apple cider vinegar to clarify too.

use lots of deep conditioner.

We use Aveda sun care, it’s expensive but you don’t need a lot. You could interchange with a cheaper one if you wanted.