Toddler and water

[Thunderr]

My 20month old seems to have a fear of water.
She loves sitting in a bath.
But hates: being splashed in any way, paddling pools, water play, swimming and having her hair washed.

we used to go swimming but stopped when I returned to work, and only taken her again recently.

Any tips? This seems to be getting worse. Her hair is driving me mad covered with food, and suncream, but I can’t face the battle more than twice a week. I would also like her to keep cool in the pool.

My DD was a lot like this. We tried everything, eventually bath time songs worked, she watched them on the TV then I would sing then to her in the bath. Cocomelon did a good one about jumping in the bathtub and scrub scrub scrub 😂😂

Now she happily gets in and washes her self 🤷‍♀️

@MotherHaryy thank you! She will quite happily get in the bath, and refuses to get out! Sits playing with her toys, mixing water, pouring etc. just won’t have her hair washed or be splashed. I’ve tried different methods to wash her hair, but no joy. It’s usually me trying to pour water over her, whilst she’s screaming and trying to climb out, which is just getting harder. With the paddling pool, I’ve tried putting her toys in, but she won’t even touch the water. She also screams if any child splashes near her or gets her, which is difficult at childcare.

I just carried on regardless with my older daughter. Poured water over her head, applied shampoo and rinsed, ignoring the screams. When she went into hospital to have her first baby the first thing she packed was her hair-drier.

@Thunderr - Literally my daughter all over, we would let her 'wash' our hair with water going over our faces, then accidentally spill water on her face, or get her to do swimming where she laid on her back then we moved a wet flannel above her face so she got wet but not soaking😂

in the garden we started with her using a watering can to water the plants then wash her hands off afterwards, eventually it just kind of clicked

I must also add, my partner was the only one she'd let actually wash her hair, so we would wait for him to do bath time or get up early before he went to work.