2.5 yo DS terrified of water what to do?

[Varfalli34]

My DS has never been keen on swimming. When he was baby we swam a lot and went to a swimming class every week that was in a lovely nursery pool. He absolutely hated it and clung to DH the whole time. We persevered for about a term or two but he kept hating it.

Since then it has been really up and down. For a while his godmother took him swimming once a week and he enjoyed it. We also went on a holiday about 9 months ago and he was in the pool the whole time and loving it. After that he was always really excited to go swimming for a while. We also went to Center Parcs and he enjoyed the pool there (although was clingy at times).

We kept taking him quite regularly (although not every week) but he was never overly keen.

We went on holiday a few weeks ago and he absolutely refused to get in the pool. He would sit on the steps and once went in on my back, the entire week.

My DH tried to coax him into one of those sort of rubber ring boat things which he loved outside of the pool. Once in the pool he was absolutely hysterical and so scared.

I took him over to a friend's last weekend and he was very interested in the pool (covered at the time as was raining) and saw some little boats that he wanted to go in in the pool. I told him he could go the next day with his granny. Granny then takes him next day and he refuses to go in. He is v keen on granny and feels safe with her for sure.

We're going on holiday this weekend and was really hoping we could all just hang out by the pool and enjoy swimming together (don't have a lot of cash for activities etc).

Sorry for long post but didn't want to drip feed. Does anyone have any advice to try and encourage him to enjoy it?

Sorry no advice but DD 2.2 is exactly same - hated swimming, loved swimming now hates it again, we would love to be able to take her but she just clings to me & is miserable. She still talks about going swimming but think she doesn't associate it with the reality.

bump?

My eldest was scared of big water (i.e.pools) and having water on his face from about 18mths. We had to stop swimming lessons because it was 30mins of hysteria!

We just let him grow out of it. Hair washing was needed once a week but we just made it brief as possible. Otherwise avoided the pool/sea and just tried to be encouraging when the opportunity arose without forcing the issue. He chose to take up swimming lessons again at 3.5 and was nervous about a lot of it to start with. He hated getting his face wet and going on his back but slowly, slowly he just got it. The discovery of large goggles were the final trick.

He's nearly 6 now and loves swimming. Underwater handstands, swimming underwater - you name it! Different child to 3yrs ago.

Give them time and they'll get there. Good luck!