Suggestions please re. a 2yr old with a phobia of the sea

[ten10]

It never used to be like this, and I can't think of any bad experiences he has had with the sea.

He is fine with his bath, showers, the swimming pool, puddles and pretty much all other forms of water,

but gets hysterical about being on the beach because he doesn't want to be anywhere near the sea.

which is a problem for us as I live very near the sea and we used to go to the beach on a very regular basis, seeing as it is great free entertainment.

generally he is a secure and confident little boy,

so any suggestions from any one about dealing with this and hopefully getting rid of it,
(advise over dealing with any type of phobias greatly appreciated)

My dd went through a phase of getting really upset by the sea. It was probably when she was about the same age as your ds. We didn't go to the beach that much, but we did (and still do) spend our holidays by the sea.

Dd just got over it by herself, maybe by the age of 3?- I guess it's one of those things she eventually learnt wasn't going to hurt her. My only tips are: don't make a big thing of it (I'm sure you're not); maybe walks near the sea/beach, if possible, on very calm days. Dd used to get more upset if there were lots of waves.

It took one wave being bigger than exected to turn ds right off the sea. Thankfully he was never scared of the beach. last summer ( he was 2) and we couldn;t get him near the water. So just did football and shell hunting on the dry sand bit. This year we have already manged to get him throwing stones in the water and feeling wet sand between his toes which progresed to paddling( flipping frezeing it was too).
What worked? not sure. over the winter he took his bike for lots of rides on the prom, maybe he just grew up a bit and stopped associating the sea side with getting suprised.
We also live near the sea and its a great cheap morning or day out.

Could it be the noise startling him? The sea can look HUGE when you're tiny, and the noise can be pretty scary when it's rough.

It does sound as if it's the waves, obviously not present in the other forms of water he's happy to be in and around, which are scaring him.
I see you're in Eastbourne. If you can get away, try taking him to see a large river like the Thames, or to docks where you can see the sea usually lapping at the sea wall at most.

My Godson was (we thought) terrified of the sea - turned out it was just that he thought he needed wellies in case his feet got splashed...
I don't know if that is any help?