Toddler aversion to water

[T-man's Mama]

Have you had a hard time getting your little one into water? My DS (16 mo) just started swim lessons this week, and going on day four now, he has yet to get into the water with me. I let him sit on the pool's edge and splash his feet, watch me blow bubbles, etc. Once in a while he will let me dunk him (to the shoulders) in the water, and seems to enjoy it, but then immediately wants back out. I continue to take him just to get him accustomed to the environment, making it a fun experience, and providing exposure in terms of other kids in the water having fun, but I don't push it. When he signals he's ready to leave, we go. He does better in zero entry kid pools, and loves bath time, fwiw. But he's the only kid in this class that won't get in the pool.

[lifeguard]

The best thing at this stage is to just keep doing what you're doing. Focus on keeping it fun.

[faithsstuff]

This sounds exactly like us! We took swimming lessons with 18 month old ds and it was not worth the monry. He also is not taking baths right now. I've found that he likes the water when he can initiate the interaction. He loves for me to turn the shower on and let him stand or lay under it. He also stopped using his little pool, but loves to play with a bucket of water. good luck mama!

[limabean]

This probably won't be helpful, but this is why we wait until our kids are 3 before doing swimming lessons. We take them swimming before that, but put zero pressure on them to get in. At that age neither of my kids really liked being in a pool for more than a few seconds.

[ASusan]

DS loves the water, and had been pretending to be "jumping off the diving board" for months before summer swim season started.

He would not participate in his lessons. For 2 weeks, he wouldn't join the others and simply refused. We had just decided not to continue with lessons, and he joined in that day. He participated fairly well for the next two weeks. I just didn't pressure him to join, let him make the decision, and tried to get a lot of water play-time in there (at non-lesson times), so it wasn't all about the lessons.