toddlers ad baths

[crowsashes]

right my problem is my lil one ( 2 1/2) used to love the bath, be in it for hours if he had the chance, has suddenly found an irrational fear of it, and i mean you

mention 'bath' he runs and sits down and hides under his blanket.

if i put him in the bath he whines and whines until i get him out and is only happy once his clothes are back on.

at first i thought it was the cold but having a centrally heated bathroom i realised that it couldnt be. ive tried everything including getting more fun things to play with in the bath like his watering can and the likes. ive stopped using his usual soap in case thats causing his skin to hurt/sting and nothing. he even whines if we share a bath i thought it was the temperature of the bath too but ive even go the thermometer out to check!

its now getting really frustrating as i cant even get him anywhere near the bath tub whereas before hed run up and get nakey if it was bath time

how can i stop him from being so scared of the bath ?

[oldfella]

Had the same problem many years ago, ( the babe is now 35 ) but the wife and I got in the bath together and left babe with her clothes on and then ignored her.

It worked

So ended up 3 in the bath, "tight fit but fun "

[Keaniebean]

Poor little thing, my only suggestion is maybe it was a bad dream or something on the TV if you have ruled out anything obvious.

My 3 year old wont go near manequins now after an episode of Dr Who, they are easily impressioned at that age.

I'm sorry I havent got any suggestions as to how to solve it, hopefully he will just come round at some point and this will go as quickly as it came.

[homegrown]

Our youngest use to love the bath too, but now he screams until you take him out but... Put him in the shower he would play for hours. do you have a shower, perhaps he wants to be like a grown up

[crowsashes]

no i dont have a shower yet! he did used to love the shower ( as our first house had one and hed come in with me) then i moved and havent had one for two years, i did try a few months ago to shower him after swimming but he screamed like mad!

have had some success though this morning, the 'look' helped in telling him its bath time and theres no getting out of it. he still whined but there wasnt the scene of me dragging him to the bathroom. still need to work on the whining whilst in the bath tub though, that is really irritating as it doesnt have an off button!

[grubbysoles]

My daughter did this when she was about 1 1/2 or so. She absolutely would NOT get in the bath - would thrash her legs about everywhere when I tried to put her in there. It lasted a few weeks and then she just started happily getting in the bath again and has loved it again ever since. I think I have read somewhere before that it is very common for them to become scared of water but it is usually just a phase. As long as you don't do anything to put him off forever (like force him to go in there) he might just get comfortable with it again in his own time.

I had to give my daughter squaddie washes for a while! I still ran the bath and took her in there so she had the option, but for a while she chose to just sit on my lap next to the bath and be scrubbed.

[citizentwiglet]

My eldest went through this phase as well - but I think it might have started after he choked a bit when his dad was rinsing his hair (Ellis sits up in the bath to have his hair rinsed, and his dad said he looked up and went to speak at just the wrong moment....and got a mouthful of water! He was OK, but got a bit of a shock).

I must say, the only way we could deal with it was to bath him less often - just once a week. We made sure he KNEW there was a bath coming, too; we didn't just take him upstairs and throw him in; and we encouraged him to come into the bathroom and 'help' when one of us was having a bath so he could see there was nothing to be scared of. You can buy those things you can put on their heads to stop water getting into their eyes, but I found that a rolled-up towel that I didn't mind getting wet held over their foreheads works just as well.

He just seemed to get over it - now he demands a bath, and once he's in it, it's a struggle to get him out!! Don't worry if you can only bath your littlie occassionally - they don't get THAT dirty, and vital areas can be easily wiped when needed. To be honest, I think many parents are probably guilty of bathing their children too often - hence the huge market in expensive baby moisturisers!

Don't stress, don't let your littlie see you stress, and in a wee while you will be posting 'How do I get my toddler out of the bath', I bet!

Good luck, let us know how you get on xx

[crowsashes]

oh there was never issues in him getting out as once the water went cold ( yup he would be in there THAT long) hed get out no probs.

most of the time he just has a bath in water no soap as i tend to do that daily to ( this is why i want a shower!)

ill see how it goes over the next week, he may just randomly decide he wants a bath , like the time he went off cheese then found a liking for it again and would eat his way through the wrapper!

[jampot]

i think its an in-built thing . just as they get old enough to realise danger everything seems life or death and self preservation kicks in BIG TIME this is why some kids go off lumpy food (oh no! i might choke) or certain colours ( oh no! it might be poisonous) and then there are the non bathers ( oh no im gonna drown!) give the littleone time and they willcome around to the idea of baths as fun again ...hopefully ... one day!

[mrsflibble]

soph went through this, turns out she was terrified of the plug hole and oveflow so to cure it i had to show her with a pingpong ball that THAT couldn't fit down a plug hole, and see how much bigger she is than the ball? so there's really no way she'd be washed away........

[Julysea]

My eldest also went through this phase at around age age of 18 months to around 3. We just used to bath her only when she really needed it, and other wise just wash her down with a flannel. Also, when she did have to have a bath, we put her in the baby bath (her baby brother was born when she was 2) and she seemed to tolerate that OK. Still not sure what the problem was, but she'd never been that keen on water. Used to sit with her back to the sea whenever we went on holiday to a beach