Sudden Bathtime Freakouts

My daughter went through the same thing. All of a sudden she was afraid of the noise the pipes make when the water was draining from the tub. She was terrified for about 2 weeks. I even tried taking a bath with her and that didn't help (but at least my clothes were'nt soaked). The only thing that got her back in the tub was adding some bubble bath and the big serving spoons from the kitchen (bubble catchers!). Since then she has loved her bath again and has entered a new stage that she wants to shower like a big girl (she's 2!). I guess they just keep changing... Good luck.

S.

Oh my gosh this sounds exactly like what I just went through with my 15 month old. She had a diaper rash so we made sure to take care of that so that the water/soap wasnt hurting her irritated skin, although I don't think her freak-outs really had anything to do with the rash. We went a few days where we didn't even attempt the bath, tried to let her forget about it. I held her tight and took her in the shower a few times. She was scared but she held me tight until it was over. Then we went out and bought ALL NEW bath toys (more like beach toys). I mean, we went a little nuts. We have a turtle that swims when you pull his tail, a bath book and some boats. We filled the tub, put the toys in and let her stand by and watch as the toys "had fun" in the water. The first day we didn't even take her clothes off or try to put her in, just let her look. THe next day she wanted to get in there with the turtle and the boats.

Does he like to play in little kiddie swimming pools? Could you try playing outside in the swimming pool now that warmer weather is here? If he will play in the kiddie pool try doing quick wash ups in the pool. They have some of the smaller soft sided ones that you could sit and relax with him on these hot summer days.

I have never experience this with my own children, so this is just a suggestion. I work with developmentally and emotionally challanged children and we need to be creative in trying to get them to do things that are a health issue like bathing.

I wish you luck and best wishes for the twins coming as well.

My friend went through this and ended up bathing her child standing up in the kitchen sink until the phase passed. Obviously it's a quick bath so the child didnt get too cold but it was the only way to get him clean for about 6 weeks!

Does he like a kiddie pool in the summer? Maybe getting him into a kiddie pool to play might help him deal with his water issues??

We went through this recently at 32 months, which sounds a lot older than the other responses I'm seeing. The whole bath was a problem but hair washing was especially impossible. One thing that worked for us was new toys as the other posts mentioned.

The other thing that made a big difference is that we started to do a lot of "bath time play" where we would take a big bowl or bucket (dry -- just pretend water) into the living room and play bath time with all of his toys (cars or blocks in addition to dolls if he wanted). We'd talk to the toys about how it was bath time and tell them how exciting bath time was and then we'd help them get into the "tub". We'd wash their "hair" and "body" play with them in the "water". Then we'd help them get out and dried off and spend a lot of time praising them for how clean and beautiful they looked after their baths. We also had him help was our hair and bodies in the pretend bath. Doing this all in his normal play area in the living room seemed to help relieve a lot of the anxiety.

After day or two when it was going smoothly in the play area we moved the pretend baths into the bathroom and did the same thing. Then, we introduced the new toys into a real bath in the bath tub and asked him if we wanted to get in with them. Thankfully he did. Once we got him in the tub it was still two more days of play washing his toys' "hair" before we could wash his hair. It took a couple of days, but we went slowly because of how scared he had become. We had tried playing it tough at first and I think that made it more difficult in the end, but I think that's partly down to his particular personality.

Hopefully we won't have to do it again, but I'm sorry to read that some of you went through bath time fear more than once... I've got my fingers crossed we're done with bath time fears for this one!

Good luck!

Hi K.,

Try getting in with him. My son went through this and it was really hard. I put on my bathing suit one night and got right in with him. After that he was fine. You could also try a small baby pool outside and just let him play in a small amount of water. Maybe it is a sudden fear of the water and just letting him play in the water with no pressure will help. Good luck!

L.

Although, my children are grown, I vividly remember this phase with my middle child. I disagree with the advice of limiting baths. It's what I did and it made it worse. What finally helped was being incredibly structured about it. Same time everyday, with the same routine leading up to the bath. (ie after breakfast/dinner.) I would validate his reluctance, but calmly insist that the bath is non-negotiable. When it wasn't a "surprise you're taking a bath now!" type thing, it became much more manageable until he finally calmed down. I did make the bath as quick as possible when he was most stressed and let him know, in a reassuring way that the more he cooperated the quicker it would be. Good luck!

My little girl went through this at about 9 months - it actually only lasted a few days. What seemed to get her over is what other posts said - I got in the tub. Actually, I got in the tub without her, had her stand on the side (undressed & ready to go ). Then I started playing with her toys and she wanted right in. I only had to do it 2-3 days and then she was fine.

Good luck!

Who knows what precipitates these stages?
They do pass rather quickly but Mums have this notion in their head they could "mark" the child for life if they do not handle it properly, yes?
He could be frightened of the big tub. Who knows?
How about taking him to walmart, picking out a sterite box large enough for him to fit into, small enough to go in the tub..or put it on bathroom floor.
Tell him it is his own special tub so he wont be frightened.
We had to do this with my three year old grandson when he went into the tub/shower horror stage.
It works very nicely...room for a few toys ect.
Tincture of time and this, too, shall pass.
Best wishes and God bless
Grandmother Lowell

My son went through a similar phase. One of us took a bath with him - sitting crossed legged with him in the little space between our body and legs. This way he was really secure and we played a little bit each day until he relaxed. The other parent would take him out of the tub carefully. Eventually we started getting out before him. As he felt more and more comfortable on his own we started getting in with him only after he was in the for a while and eventually stopped getting in with him.

You might want to try a blow up tub that makes the space smaller and softer.

Also, with summer coming you can get a natural, environmentally friendly soap and rinse off with a sprinkler or wading pool.

My daughter went through this around the same age. She seemed to be scared of sliding around in the tub even though she was seated. We bought some of the duckie and froggie suction pads that go on the bottom of the tub to prevent falls - they are just suctions so they don't stay on permantently, but they seemed to help her feel more secure than just the slippery tub surface and they were fun to play with too. (I think we found them at Target in the bath dept.)

take a bath with him

It helped my daughter if I got into the tub with her. Ours was related to her having to use a different bathroom because the one she was used to was being renovated. Even after we moved back into the regular bathroom, she freaked out for another couple of weeks. This is a fun one, isn't it??

I went through several of these sudden bath-aversion phases with my daughter, who is now 20 months. She is back to loving the bath... in my opinion, by the time you try all these different techniques to make it better, the phase will likely be over and he'll be back to liking it. When we had the bath issues, we'd just limit the baths to a couple times a week (or when really dirty) and then once she seemed better about it, we increased it.

Good luck!